The Nine Heroes: The beginning
by MichaelTheeAnthro20
Summary: This is a tale about the meeting of 9 beings and their friends who will have to band together to stop an evil force consisting of enemies and rivals both old and new to them all.  HUGE Xover.
1. Prologue

This is a story about an unusual event in the history of the Omniverse.

This is a story about eight beings of different origins, but with the same goal: to do right where others have wronged.

This is a story about what happened one day, when the forces of evil these brave souls had vanquished again and again, unexplainably came to learn about one another, and how they intended to cooperate to turn the wheels of fate into their malevolent favor.

This is a story about one being who would rise to become the ninth one, who would unite the other eight in the hopes of stopping the incoming invasions, the mass murders, the slavery, and the destruction of the worlds they knew, before it was too late.

This is the start of a tale about grand adventures, unimaginable powers, great discoveries, the unbreakable bonds of friendship and love, hilarious events, dramatic twists, and fateful sacrifices.

This is the legend of…

The Nine Heroes

* * *

Author's Comment: _Hello, folks. This is my first fanfiction story, and I have big plans for it, with a capital B._

_This story is gonna span over more than just the Star Fox and Sly Cooper game series, we're talking Eight different ones. And I'm gonna be sneaky enough to include my 'other' self and my gang in this too. You will see why soon._

_Edit: I've changed the story-title from "the __Eight__ heroes" into "the __Nine__ heroes", because I'll be adding a new game series along with the rest. Bear with me._


	2. Ch 1: An unnusual welcome

Chapter one: An unusual welcome

The sun had reached its peak in the sky, bathing rays of warmth on the western coast of the US. And right now, it was perched right over a city sitting on the southern edge of the infamous state of Calisota, home of Duckburg and the headquarters of Scrooge McDuck, the richest man (and duck) to date.

The city I'm talking about, however, was no stranger to wealthy persons, either. As a matter of fact, one of McDuck's billionaire associates, a lion by the name of Julius Royalhart, had this city, which by the way is called New Preda City, as his hometown and base of operations.

Julius Royalhart didn't have such a thing like a Money Bin, neither such an incredible story like Scrooge about how he made his fortune, but he had made some pretty good investments in his time where others thought there was nothing to profit on.

One of the things the slightly aged Big Cat had poured a Hell lot of dollars in lately, was a big structure that looked a good deal like one of the fearsome Mako reactors from the Final Fantasy 7 game, only a lot bigger, and set on the borders between New Preda, the southern desert and the shores of the Pacific Ocean. The big building had been finished three years ago, but the media had not yet been able to squeeze out any information about the big building from anyone involved with the making of it.

The reason for all the hush-hush was the event you are about to witness.

* * *

"The sun is almost in position. Engage Sun panels!" an old vulpine professor told his assistants inside a control room near the center of the big building. "Sun panels opened and in positions, Sir," a simian lab-assistant said in response a few seconds later. "All computers, engines and power sources in top condition?" the old fox asked a young bulldog. "10-4, everything is A-okay, Sir!" the dog said back in a military soldier tone. "Time and space coordinates put in?" "All coordinates put in and double checked, Sir!" "Good," the old man responded. He then took hold of a microphone and talked to one of the people outside the control room. "Kalasta, are you ready to help make the warps?"

Outside, a group of people was standing near a platform situated on the opposite side of the control room, perched on the edge over a big round arena-like pit which could remind you of a smaller, more modern version of the Roman Coliseum fighting-ring, with seven doors imbedded in the walls.

One of the persons, a very old man clad in light brown mage robes with the hood over his head, only letting you see his canine snout, beard and glowing eyes, had situated himself on the platform, readying for a powerful spell. "Let us begin," was all he said in return.

"You heard the wizard; let's put this thing to work!" the fox professor told his cohorts.

In the group, one of the males, a young wolf-fox, was almost beside himself with excitement. "Oooh, I've dreamt of this for ages, and now it's gonna happen!" His girlfriend, a beautiful leopard- lynx, tried to get him back to earth. "Michael, I understand your ecstasy, but cool down! Otherwise our new 'guests' are gonna think you're nuts." "Falisa's got a point," one of the other girls, a very good-looking lioness piped in. "If they hear you ramble about where you know them from, there's no telling how they're gonna react to our proposition." "Alright, alright," the vulpine-wolf called Michael said, getting a bit more serious.

Out on the platform, Kalasta the wizard was surrounded by mystic symbols floating in the air or magically engraved in the steel floor, chanting in both Latin, Gaelic and other ancient languages, all the while pointing his hands on the seven different doors, with one color going from his fingers to a different door for every five seconds. In response, slightly muffled sounds of powerful machines could be heard, lending power to the spells the old druid was performing.

This display of harmony between magic arts of old and modern technology lasted for a good half an hour, until the people inside heard sounds from the locked rooms connected to the doors in the arena that mixed bellowing thunder, howling winds, crashing waves, and other mighty sounds of nature. And then, there was heard seven thuds of different impacts.

"We have the seven specified individuals registered in the portal-rooms, professor," the monkey-assistant told his superior after verifying information on some of the computer-screens, "Their conditions are a bit off after the transportation, but still stable." "Good, good," the old fox said in response, before he picked up the mic again and talked to the group, "Everything is okay, friends. The "guests" have arrived, safe and sound."

"Great. Now, let us see these heroes you've told me of so many times," a finely dressed, and a bit obese, lion, Julius Royalhart himself, said to the young wolf. The old cat was very curious of these people his daughter's friend had such an obsession over. His only concern was if they would react hostile to them for taking them away from their original homelands and planes of existences. _But if the old mage is right about his predictions, they don't have any other choices,_ he reminded himself.

Now the various machines inside the building had gone over to a less noisy pace after being put to the test, cooling down while their labor showed its fruits. Shortly thereafter, the seven doors to the arena changed color, with a different symbol appearing on each one.

One door turned red, with the symbol of a red mushroom dotted with white spots and eyes on it's tan stalk appearing on it, while a second one turned brown with two big golden letters spelling 'DK' on it. A third turned green, with a golden outline of three triangles set on top of each other to make one big triangle. A fourth one stayed steel-gray, but with the silver symbol of a running fox with wings on it getting emblazoned on the door. The door on its left, the fifth one, turned blue, with a symbol turning up in the middle in the shape of a stylized raccoon face done in blue and white. The sixth door turned bright yellow, with the symbol of a ball-like contraption appearing on it, done in red and white and divided in the middle horizontally by a black streak with a white spot in the middle. The seventh door turned purple, showcasing a simple white 'O'-symbol on it.

* * *

Not ten seconds after the colors and symbols was on, the doors opened up, splitting in half vertically and gliding inside the walls. Now, they could hear voices coming from inside the rooms and from the sound of it, the persons inside didn't make a soft landing.

"Leaping lasagna, what-a hit me? A Chain-Chomp stampede? Or was it Yoshi who pounced me for eating the last cookie in the bowl?"

"Whoa, it feels like Rambi tried to massage me or something. Maybe I shouldn't have drunk those two dozen Coconut Chills after that workout with Chunky."

"Aow. Oh, Great Din, did a Dodongo chew on me, or did some Stalfos just attack me from behind? I feel sore all over."

"Blazing Solar, did an asteroid hit me, or did Tricky try to give me a noggie?"

"Ouch, was that Muggshot who sucker punched me, or did Murray fall on me? That was some bruising!"

"Wow! Either I got hit by a Giga Impact, or Pikachu Iron-Tailed me in his sleep."

"Owie, owie, did some Rabbids just beat me up, or did Murphy give me another 'parachute jump' in my sleep?"

"Oh, my, God! They're here! They're here for Real!" Michael was feeling like he was almost about to faint of joy. "Michael, get a grip!" Falisa told him, trying to get her boyfriend a little sane for the occasion. "I'm so sorry, but this is just to epic for me! Seven of my favorite heroes in the one and same place! For real..." Falisa couldn't help but laugh a bit at her boyfriend's rambling. Still, she was pretty much just as hyped up for this as him, but she had enough self-control to not get hysterical.

Now they could see movement from inside the rooms, then hear the beings inside getting conscious of their surroundings and navigate themselves a bit groggily out into the pit below their new hosts and spectators.

Out of the red door, a short and a bit pudgy man came, sporting a big nose with a finely waxed mustache under it, and dressed like a plumber with blue overalls, a red shirt, brown shoes, white gloves, and a red cap with an 'M' inside a white circle on it.

From the brown door entered a huge, brown gorilla, sporting a tuft of fur on his head which looked like a styled hair flip, lots of muscles typical for an ape of his kind, and only wearing a red necktie with the initials 'DK' on it.

From the green door, a young, elven-like man came, dressed like some kind of swordsman from around the Middle Ages, with a green cap over his dirt-blonde, a bit unruly, hair, with a matching green shirt, light-brown leg-wear, brown boots and gloves, and a tough shield and sword on his back.

From the silver-grey door came a fox-man clad in a lot more modern clothing than the elven one, looking like a mix between an ace fighter pilot and a mercenary, his most notable feature being the white strip of hairfur between his ears, and the futuristic comm. unit around the back of his head.

The blue door revealed a grey raccoon-man with ears almost like the elven boys', dressed in a blue shirt, with a matching blue peasant cap, boots, and gloves with yellow rims, a pair of grey pants the same color as his fur (giving one the impression he was pantsless), and a long cane with a peculiar golden hook on the tip resembling a big, stylized 'C'.

Out of the yellow door, a young boy about in his mid teens appeared. He sported black and pretty messy hair hiding under his cap, which by the way was white with a red shade-rim, and a green 'C'-shaped symbol, almost like an arm swing-motion, on the front. Other than that, he was dressed pretty much like any teen, except for his backpack, and a bunch of odd balls hanging from his belt.

The seventh, purple door revealed something very peculiar and physics-law bending: a limbless man, with a really big nose (even bigger than the plumbers'), white gloves on four-fingered hands, yellow sneakers, and a purple shirt on his floating body, with a red hood on top and the same white 'O' from the door on his belly.

* * *

Author's Comment:_ And now for the main characters to appear!_

_Mario: My nose isn't that-a big._

_Rayman: Mine neither._

_Ash: You're both big-nosed funnies. (snicker)_

_Mario and Rayman: ARE NOT!_

_...Anyhow, enjoy. Next chapter will be coming a lot sooner. __(__Really, REALLY sorry for late updating.)_


	3. Ch 2: Rough misunderstartings

Chapter two: Rough misunderstartings

The seven ones in the pit were pretty groggy-looking from their trip through time and space, but as soon as they noticed each other, they snapped back to reality. They looked at each other with pensive stares of confusion and a hint of fear. That is, until the plumber and the big ape saw each other.

"Donkey Kong?"

"Mario?"

"Yes," the wolf-fox Michael whispered in ecstasy.

The gorilla, Donkey Kong, looked at the plumber. "Ah, now I get it. This is another one of your "grand adventures", and now you've dragged me along for the ride," he said accusingly to the man he called Mario. The stout plumber got a frowny look and said back, with an Italian-Brooklyn mixed accent, "Don't accuse me for this. I can't anything for-a being a magnet for trouble like this. And for what I know, your arch-enemy K. Rool could be as much behind this as Bowser could."

"Hey, hey, hey, calm down you two," the reynard pilot intertwined. "I don't know who you are or where we are, but I think it'd be wise to not get hostile with each other." "Said the oddly-dressed Keaton," the elf said, having unsheathed his sword and shield, looking in the fox's direction.

"Hey!" the limbless one ran in-between the fox and the elf. "There's no reason for us to fight against each other just because we're different." "The limbless dude's right," the teen said to back him up."And also, I'd like to know why I'm standing in the same room as a peppy Slaking and an upstanding, shorthaired, one-tailed Ninetails and ditto grey Zigzagoon." "Uh, what?" the raccoon, fox and gorilla said in unison, stupefied looks on their faces. Up on the platform, Michael had to stifle a very loud chuckle caused by the three animal-men in the pit.

"Wait a macaroni minute!" Mario said, making everyone in the pit look his way, everyone but Donkey Kong giving him strange looks for his funny food metaphor. "You," the plumber pointed at the spiky-haired teen, "You wouldn't happen to be Ash Ketchum, would you?" "Why yes, mister...-Wait!" the teen called Ash said before stopping midsentence. "You're... No, it's not possible!" "Who am I?" Mario asked, a bit challenging in his voice.

"Super Mario, the guy from the Super Mario Bros. games! But, I thought you weren't real." "Oh, he is real enough," Donkey Kong said, demonstrating by shoving the Italian plumber with a light push, which was a lot heavier than light considering he was a gorilla."Hey, watch it, DK," Mario said, having his hat fall of because of the sudden action, his brown hair now in plain sight.

"Now, as I was saying," Mario said after putting on his cap again, "you're Ash Ketchum, the young Pokémon Trainer from Pallet Town who travels the world to become a Master Trainer, right?" "Yes, that's me alright," Ash said a bit proudly, then asking the plumber, "Have you seen me on television perhaps, under the tournaments, since you know my name?" "Heh, more than just those times," Mario said, getting a confused expression from the young trainer.

"Now, as for you-""Hey, I'm the one who's gonna introduce everyone here!"Michael said from the platform edge, having rushed up there when Mario was about to point his finger on the elf. As every one in the pit looked up, Falisa, Michael's feline girlfriend walked up to him and swatted him behind his head."Don't rush it, remember?" she said reprimandingly. "Ouch. Okay, okay, "_mommy_"," the young hybrid canine said with his ears down, while the others in their group came closer to the platform's edge.

"Well, well, looks like our captors finally shows themselves," the raccoon said who, despite being in an odd predicament, had a sly grin on his lips. He continued with saying to the lupine over him, "I must say I'm impressed. It takes some serious technology to catch a master thief-" "-Especially one of the stealthy and elusive Cooper Clan," Michael ended smugly for the ringtailed marauder. The furry thief looked quite surprised at the young wolf's statement."H-how do you know about the Cooper Clan? I thought the common man on the street only knew about the Cooper _family_ from my grandfather to me."

"Sly Cooper, I will have you know that the "common man on the street"-line only fits for those idiots who believes every single thing TV tells them and only follows their superiors, and not their own consciousness or instincts as well," the wolf told the 'coon with a look of distaste of being called a 'common man on the street'. "And by the way, I'm not 'common' in any aspect, not unlike any of you," he said looking down at the different men who was looking at him and the others who had walked up beside him.

"Michael, maybe it would be a good idea to introduce everyone now," a spectacled fox about Michael's age told him. He was followed by several nods from his friends. "Well, I was about to begin when the Prince-of-Pickpockets accused me of being a commoner." "He didn't "accuse" you of anything; you simply overreacted," the red fox told him with sagely patience after whipping his glasses and putting them on again. "Alright, alright, Ben. I'm sorry," Michael told the pure-blood reynard."It's okay. Now do the same to Mr. Cooper," Ben the fox said back. The wolf-fox looked down in the pit and said, "I'm sorry," to the raccoon.

"No problem, my foxy lupine sir," the raccoon, Sly, said in return, before the fox in the pit with him asked, "Now about those introductions you were about to make, I'm beginning to get annoyed with not knowing where I am or what is going on or who everyone around me are, seeing as we all seems to be from different worlds or something." "Yeah, let's get to knowing. I'm more confused than a Slapdash on a good day," the limbless man said in response. "To be blunt, I feel just as un-knowledgeable as a Moblin right now, so please, share what wisdom you have in that Wolfos-head of yours, kind Lupine sir," the green-clad elven warrior, having re-sheathed his sword and shield earlier, said to the aptly-addressed young man of mixed carnivorous species.

"Alright, alright, alright, then ladies and gentlemen, let's get to introductions!" Michael said, sounding a bit like a TV-show host on purpose, gaining him another swat behind the ears. "Okay, that one I should've seen coming," he said rubbing the back of his head with a funny grin to Falisa who just gave him a smug look in return. Then the young wolf-fox adopted a more serious look on his face and looked down at their soon-to-be-companions.

"Mario Mario," he said first, addressing the plumber, " The hero of the Mushroom Kingdom and the rest of the Mushroom World, you are the older brother of Luigi Mario, the love interest of Princess Peach Toadstool of the Mushroom Kingdom, and archrival of King Bowser Koopa, the ruler of the Dark Lands and master of the Koopa Troop. You were born in the Mushroom Kingdom but moved away with your parents when you and your brother were still babies, because your fates as heroes were foreseen by the enemy before you were born, making your parents take you in refuge on Earth, more approximately Brooklyn, New York . But not before you had already helped your _back then_ new dinosaur-buddy Yoshi save your brother from Kamek the Magikoopa and _then_-Prince Bowser. Am I right?"

"Hmm, you're-a good," Mario said, then came up with something he thought would stump the seemingly all-knowing wolf, "but do you know what gave me Bean Fever while I was in the Beanbean Kingdom?" "Easy; the Invincishroom you won at the New Fungitown arcade, forcing your brother to go to the Guffawha Ruins to get Crabbie Grass to cure you. This let Peach be virtually unguarded against the witch Cackletta, who everyone thought had died, but her spirit was saved by her loyal (and, honestly, really nutty) assistant Fawful, thus enabling her to possess Bowser and become Bowletta, thereby taking control of the entire Koopa Clan and getting another chance at acquiring the Beanstar, which can grant about any wish when awoken by someone with a pure voice, with Peach, being a woman of royal blood and with a voice like an angel, fitting the bill perfectly.

"Oh, and by the way, Luigi was scared as hell when he found out about the ruins' monster guardian, so he had to get hypnotized by a local Magikoopa hypnotherapist into believing he (Luigi) was you (Mario) before he could go search for the curative plant in the old ruins of yonder laughs. How about that, Mister Mario?" Mario was awestruck; this young canine-man really knew his history to a fungus-spore. Looking at Donkey Kong, all he could say was, "Mama Mia, he IS-a good."

"Yeah, well how about Me, then?" the gorilla asked in a challenging tone of his own. "I wanna know what you know about me." "As you wish, king of Kongs," Michael said as if he was a valet or something, continuing with the big ape's story.

"Donkey Kong Junior, son of Donkey Kong Senior, a. k. a. Cranky Kong, father, and Wrinkly Kong, mother, who's deceased but living on as a ghost. You're the future ruler-in-training of Donkey Kong Island, a. k. a. Kongo Bongo Island, who loves working out and eating tons of bananas (I bet it's a monkey thing), and guards the Crystal Coconut, a magical gem with virtually limitless powers. Your friends includes the long-tailed chimp Diddy Kong (your 'little buddy'), sisters Dixie and Tiny Kong, both of which can make floating descends by rotating their ponytails like helicopter-blades, and Funky Kong, local karma- and flight-man with a love for surfing. You're the boyfriend of Candy Kong (your love-monkey), a beautiful gorilla-woman that is an excellent dancer and musician. Your family include cousins Chunky and Lanky Kong, a scaredy-cat mountain gorilla and a fun-loving orangutan respectively.

"You constantly fight against the Kremling crocodiles and their disguise-loving leader King K. Rool, who's got a bloodshot, bulging left eye and a thing for doomsday devices. You also have a surprisingly friendly rivalry with K. Rool's dimwitted bodyguard Krusha, whose horrifyingly calculating and malicious brain is stuck in his butt," (here Michael and Donkey Kong both got absurd looks from the listeners, with the gorilla only nodding in approval) ", and the Kremling Krew's second in command, general Klump, who is really more bark than bite, and actually pretty soft and peaceful, and unknowing up until some years ago that he is the younger brother of K. Rool's pirate-rival Captain Skurvy.

"Fun fact: Cranky Kong was originally Mario's pet on Earth who escaped and kidnapped his first girlfriend Pauline to the top of an unfinished skyscraper, but was defeated by his former owner. Afterwards, the old 'DK' escaped again, getting into different misadventures before somehow finding his way to the Mushroom World and starting a family in the jungle of DK Island, ending up as an old codger who can't help but _"break the Fourth Wall"_ several times a week."

"Holy Inka Dinka Doo! Are you a half-God or somethi-! ...ah, wait a minute: Now I get i- Mmmph!" Here DK got a quick mouth-shut courtesy of Mario's gloved hand. The portly plumber whispered into the monkey's ears, "I know what you know, but don't spoil it for the others; they won't understand it... _yet_."

In her head, Falisa was breathing a sigh of relief, seeing as she had the same worries as Mario. If the other guys in the pit found out the wolf's source of information too soon, they would more likely than not get confused like Psyducks, and perhaps get _very_ un-cooperative caused by said confusion. First the 'strangers' had to hear their different individual stories first-hand; only when everyone knew each other could they begin explaining more elaborately.

Still, it _was_ fun listening to her boyfriend blab his head off about his _heroes_ in front of the aforementioned persons firsthand...

* * *

Next up, Michael looked straight at the elf and began on _his_ back-story. "Link, the legendary Hylian hero of the land of Hyrule. Your title refers to you as the "Hero of Time", which you acquired by traveling through time to stop the evil man of the desert, Ganondorf Dragmire, King of the Gerudo tribe, from overthrowing the throne of Hyrule, and later the rest of your world, with the power of the omnipotent Triforce, the sacred relic bestowed upon the Hyruleans by their creating Goddesses Nayru, Din and Farore. After successfully banishing him, even after Ganondorf transformed into the powerful boar-like beast-warrior Ganon, your dear friend and part-guardian angel, Princess Zelda, returned you to your lost childhood where you met her again in time to warn her and her father, the King of Hyrule, about Ganondorf's usurper plans, thus unintentionally and unknown of both you and Zelda splitting your universe's time-space continuum in two, whereas you grew up in what some call the Child Timeline.

" In your search for Navi, the fairy you had been assigned by the Great Deku Tree to guide you, and who left you for unknown reasons, you where ambushed in the vast forest known as the Lost Woods by an imp known as the Skull Kid, who possessed an odd mask and two fairies. He stole both the Ocarina of Time you had used in your quest to stop Ganondorf and gotten as a parting gift by Zelda to remember her, and your horse Epona which you had been given by your friend Malon of Lon Lon Ranch, then he escaped to the world he came from with you in tow. After being cursed into the shape of one of the plant-people known as a Deku Scrub and befriending one of the fairies that travelled with the imp, you traveled to the land of Termina, which at your arrival where just three days from being crushed by the moon.

"There, you set out on a quest to become yourself again, hunt down mystical masks with strange powers, free the guardian Giants of the lands, and destroy the evil spirit of Majora, the being that resided in the mask that possessed and controlled the Skull Kid into doing evil things to the peoples of Termina. After reliving the last three days before the Cataclysm an immeasurable number of times, helping every good being in trouble, and finally vanquishing Majora from its mask rendering both it and the moon harmless, you befriended the Skull Kid and both of its fairy companions shortly before travelling back to Hyrule, where you continued to guard the lands against evil."

After Michael finished the elf's-no, the Hylian's story, Link was looking at him like he was an omnipotent being. "That was one of the most accurate explanations about myself I've ever heard, and this coming from a complete stranger, too," the hero of old said in awe at the wolf. "Yeah, and this was only an ounce of what he knows about you and your homeworld," Falisa said with a knowing grin. The green-clad swordsman just gave her a look that said that he was convinced.

"I guess it's my turn next, then," the fox-pilot said, making everyone turn their eyes at him. "You're as sharp as I'd expected, Fox McCloud, leader of the mercenary team Star Fox, the saviors of the far-of Lylat planetary System. The son of the late James McCloud, you went after Andross Oikonny, the scientist who was exiled to the wasteland-planet of Venom after he killed a great number of innocents when he destroyed a large part of the main city of Lylat's capital planet Corneria with one of his experimental superweapons, one of the victims being your mother Vixy.

"After his banishment, the madman ape took control of the unknown Venomian lizard population, and later other past supporters, to create an army in a bid for galactic domination, but his plans was delayed by your father's team, though Pigma Dengar betrayed James and Peppy Hare, with the old rabbit barely escaping to give you the sad news of your father's heroic, but tragic disappearance. Years later, you, Peppy, and your childhood friends Slippy Toad and Falco Lombardi, helped the Cornerian army defeat Andross' lackeys, and eventually, after many hardships and a hard fought battle, you killed Andross himself in his underground base, barely escaping death yourself with a little help from "the great beyond" in the shape of your father through some kind of manifestation, guiding you out of the destructing futuristic catacombs under Venom.

"Eight years later, down on money and with your home and base of operations, the Great Fox, in bad condition, you agreed with your father's old superior General Pepper to try to restore the ancient planet of Sauria, home of various races of dinosaurs, which had mysteriously began breaking apart lately, making it a danger to the system at large. There you befriended a triceratops kid of the Earthwalker tribe called prince Tricky, battled hordes of Sharpclaw pirates lead by their general Scales, restored the Spellstones, set free the ancient creation spirits known as the Krazoa, killed a re-incarnated Andross, and saved a girl that would become the love of your life, the young vixen Krystal of Cerinia.

"In the following years, you and your team would eventually face of against first the interplanetary-traveling, robotic insects known as the Aparoids, who planned to integrate the whole Lylat System into their ranks, and later the rest of the galaxy, via infection, mind-control and mutation, and later the fish-people known as the Anglars, a race that had been bred as some of Andross' experimental armies and had been flourishing in the toxic seas of planet Venom without anyone knowing, because of military restriction prohibiting research of the damned planet.

"At the time of the Anglar Invasion, you and your team had split up for personal reasons, including that you booted Krystal of the team in an overcome of fear of her losing her life in the line of duty, with her taking it as if you had lost interest and faith in her, making her join and train in the Cornerian army and later, in her hurt, defecting to your rivals of team Star Wolf, who had been pestering you since Andross hired them back in the Lylat Wars to take you out. And sadly, that is all I know for certain about you and your life," Michael ended with a hint of sadness and curiosity.

Fox McCloud was really impressed at the knowledge of this young mutt, especially of how he knew about his father appearing to save him, and he was a little curious to why Michael didn't know the outcome of the war he had fought against the Anglars and until now, when he seemed pretty knowledgeable about the others. He decided that he would find out eventually, perhaps when he found out why he was here in the first place.


	4. Ch 3: Longwinded backstories

Chapter three: long-winded backstories

The raccoon, Sly, was pretty amazed at the mercenary fox's back-story, as it somewhat resembled his own past here and there. A mad-man ape scientist, a betrayer in the old man's team, a dead father, childhood friends going through thick and thin with you, a vixen for a girlfriend which, apparently, were (or was) on the opposite side of the law from you, and an old enemy brought back to life...

* * *

As would have it, Michael noticed the ringtail thinking, and spoke to him, "I can see what you think, Cooper, and yes, I've noticed the similarities between your and McCloud's pasts, too." This made both Sly and Fox look first look up at Michael, then at each other, and up at the wolf-fox again. "What do you mean?" the white-haired fox asked curiously. "Yeah, let us hear," the raccoon asked with anticipation, followed by the rest in the pit except for Mario for some reason.

"Okay then," Michael said with a glint in his eyes, showing you that he had been waiting for this moment with bathed bread. "Sly Cooper, you're the last in the bloodline of the master thief family known as the Cooper clan, which hails all the way back to ancient Egypt's prime-time 1300 B.C., and have been stealing from criminals all over the world throughout the centuries with the family motto of only stealing from those that deserve it, with there being no challenge, no honor, or no fun robbing from innocent commoners, and that you only can call yourself a Master Thief if you can rip of Master Criminals.

"Sadly, this kind of real life Robin Hood-behavior gets you lots of enemies, both from the law-enforcers and the criminals. The deadliest of them all were Clockwerk, a mad genius of an owl that despised the Coopers of their superior thieving skills and only using them on bad guys like him, which made it his life's goal to wipe out the Coopers completely, even if he had to live forever. This he managed to do by some unknown way to shift out all his organic bodyparts with robotic ones, and powered by his intense hatred for the Cooper line, he lived on to haunt your family for millenniums up to this day. When he found you and your father, he had gathered a group of hardened thugs which he was in charge of, which called themselves the Fiendish Five. Your father tried to protect you, but he was devastatingly outnumbered, getting murdered by Clockwerk's beak, leaving you an orphan bereft of your family and your heritage, the Thievious Raccoonus, an ancient book handed down in your family since Slythunkamen funded the Cooper Clan and filled with special thieving moves invented and perfected by the Coopers through time for future generations to learn of and make new additions to.

"After losing everything save your father's cane and clothing, you were put in an orphanage, where you met your future team-members and brothers-in arms Bentley, a short turtle with a big brain and a nervous personality, and Murray, a big hippo with Herculean strength but a bit simple-minded. Ten years later, after working up a bit of a reputation and putting your base of operations in Paris, France, you finally set out to reclaim the book which were meant for Cooper eyes only, and to permanently shut down Clockwerk. After many trials, you had beaten the other four members, retrieved their parts of the book and found out where the owl was hiding. Although not everything went quite as planned in the last stretch against Clockwerk himself, you finally reclaimed the whole Thievious Raccoonus, and killed of the robotic old owl.

"...Or so you thought, when you two years later went after a new gang called the Klaww Gang, led by the diminutive parrot Arpeggio who wanted to resurrect Clockwerk and fuse with him to both be able to fly, because he had the handicap of short wings, and to become immortal by feeding of hatred from a hypnotized world, starting with France. Needless to say, you couldn't and wouldn't let that happen, and set out to stop him, his cohorts and their operations which were key to Clockwerk's resurrection.

"On the way, you were once again chased down by your lovely rival and girl of your dreams, Interpol Inspector Carmelita Montoya Fox, a Latin vixen with a fiery temperament, a shock pistol, and nothing but scorn for people on the wrong side of Law, sadly including yourself, who were practically helping her with her job, and she didn't appear to notice, instead hunting you down with the intent to bust you and get you incarcerated for life.

"She was helped in her quest to arrest you by a tigress called Neyla, who at first was helping you in secrecy to bust the real criminals. But that was just a trick to gain trust, which were used to double-cross both you and Carmelita, and get you two and Murray imprisoned in Prague, Chezk Rep. There you were later saved by Bentley, and afterwards you bailed both your getaway-driver/muscle-man and your hot-tempered police princess, saving them from getting hypnotized, as well as busting the Contessa, a corrupt prison-warden who worked for the Klaww Gang in exchange for special Indian spices who makes the consumer easy to anger and hypnotize. Later, after beating up the next-to-last Klaww gang member Jean Bison and stopping his old-styled spice-shipping operation, you sneaked your way onto Arpeggio's blimp-base were you found out Neyla were working for him all along, with the double-crossing jungle cat fusing with Clockwerk herself for the prospect of eternal life, killing Arpeggio, and on her way to get you and your team to.

"Luckily, you guys stopped her coming reign of terror as Clock-La with some unexpected help from Inspector Fox. Not so luckily was the fact that Bentley was crippled for life from the waist down in the final part of the battle, which Murray blamed himself for causing the damage to your friend and afterwards leaved the team to come at ease with his own mind.

"But just before he left, you found out from your father's old partner, "Old Jim" Mac Sweeney, about the Cooper Clan family vault, were your family had stashed all their loot for safekeeping. The bad news was that the island where it was located was overtaken by a mad mandrill known as Doctor M., who had tried to break in to your family gold, but unable to because the vault could only be opened by the cane of a Cooper, the only thing that could open the unbreakable vault.

"Knowing the strength of M.'s defenses and his mutant army, you set out to reunite with Murray, and consequently hire new members to the Cooper Gang to have any chance at making this incredible heist.

"The end result was quite different from what you had imagined it to be, being that Carmelita intertwined in your battle with M., and you took a deadly shot meant for her, which afterwards you took advantage off to escape the eventual cave-in by Inspector Fox's side, by faking amnesia she thought were supposedly caused by the blast. In turn, Carmelita told you that you were her partner Constable Cooper, which convinced you that she really had feelings for you and wanted to seize the opportunity your 'amnesia' gave her to become a couple, which had been impossible before since you two were on different sides of the law.

"After that, you've been her faithful partner up until now, but you also had a hope for your gang reuniting again. And that's about were I know no more of your life, Sly Cooper," Michael finished, actually having to take some deep breaths after the long tale.

Sly was practically slack-jawed at the wolf's knowledge of his life. He could not believe that a complete stranger could have dug up all this information about him and his family. The Coopers had always stayed hidden from the written world-history, so it was real shocker how this half-fox had found out about him. _"This guy must have some incredible sources to know such things about my past,"_ the raccoon thought. _"Hmm, I think he will be an interesting man to get to know."_

* * *

After a short pause, Michael looked at the baseball-caped teen with the odd balls hanging from his belt, giving him a grin before starting _his_ story. "Then it's you, Ash Ketchum, the young Pokémon trainer from the town of Pallet in the Kanto region of the Pokémon world. You have been traveling to many different countries in your search for challenges, Pokémon creatures, new friends, and the adventure to become a real Pokémon Master. At your tenth birthday, the age when humans can start their careers as Pokémon trainers and seek out their future, you were accompanied by a disobedient Pikachu, but shortly after setting out, you risked your life to save the electric mouse from a flock of Spearow birds, gaining his trust and making him a loyal friend for life.

"In the initial escape from the angry birds, you 'borrowed' and later accidentally fried the bicycle belonging to a red-haired, slightly hot-tempered girl by the name of Misty, which made her tag along with you in the hopes that you would later compensate her for the bike. Some time later after capturing your next two Pokémon's and stopping an attack by members of the villainous organization known as Team Rocket, you gained another travel-companion in the shape of your first Pokémon-gym leader, Brock, who's got the arrow of Cupid stuck on him forever as he falls in love with any attractive girls he see, but get's turned down every time too.

"Together, you three plus Pikachu and your other Pokémon companions went trough the Kanto region, and afterwards, you were sent to the Orange Archipelago by your old friend Professor Oak to acquire a special Pokéball for him. There you went on to meet Tracey, a Pokémon watcher and artist who was a fan of Oak, who he became the unofficial assistant of after your adventures on the various islands, where amongst them was your successful challenge against the local Pokémon tournament which you won.

"After the Orange islands, you have journeyed through the Johto, Sinnoh and many other regions, being accompanied by more new friends including May and her younger brother Max from Hoenn, and Dawn of Sinnoh. All the while you've also been stalked by the Team Rocket members Jessie, James and their talking Pokémon cat Meowth, who took an obsessive liking to your Pikachu for his incredible power for one of his species, trying to steal him from you along with a lot of other miscellaneous Pokémons as well over the years, but failing miserably every time.

"In those travels, you've also helped stop some really dangerous people and rouge Pokémon creatures from taking over or destroying your world. Including, for humans; teams Rocket (of course), Magma, Aqua and Galactic. And as for Pokémon; the artificially altered Mew clone called Mewtwo, the two deity-like dragons Dialga and Palkia, the world-shaping duo of the orca-like Kyogre and the earth-dinosaur Groudon, and the aggravated element-controlling birds Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres.

"Through your travels, you've met lots of people and Pokémon-beings who have taught you important life lessons and who you helped in return, and tried your hand at different regional tournaments in hopes of getting closer to your life goal to become the greatest Master trainer the world have ever seen, not giving up when the going gets tough, but only trying harder again each time, which have earned you the privilege of getting into the Pokémon Elite's searchlight as a worthy challenger for the title of Pokémon Master.

"Still, you cherish the life as a young man traveling with his best friends in the world more than the title of a great hero and Pokémon Master, how ever odd it must seem to yourself," Michael ended.

"...Whoa," was all the young monster-trainer could say of the talking wolf's tale about him. It was so accurately told, Ash was almost convinced Michael had stalked him just like Team Rocket. It was just so weird that this weird dog-like being knew his life so much, without having followed him at all in all the years he had travelled the world!

"If only he knew," Falisa thought when she watched the human teen pondering her boyfriend's source of knowledge. "He'll definitely get a shock when he finds out!"

* * *

"Now then," Michael said to one and all in the room, "The time has come for our limbless man with the big nose." "About time you said that," the man whose anatomy didn't give a shit about the laws of physics said, "And my nose isn't big!" "Sorry." "It's okay, but get on; I'm getting hungry standing around here!"

"Tell you what," the lioness by Michael's side, Alexandra, piped in, "as soon as we're done with your introduction, we'll treat you all to a healthy lunch in the dining room, free snacks for all. Sounds fair to you?" "Hear, hear!" the limbless one, Mario, Ash and DK cheered, before Fox interfered. "That's good and all, but, uh, we're not all from the same planet. What if the food here isn't good for our health?"

"No worries, sonny," the old fox-professor, who had long-since came out of the control room to join the others, told his younger kindred of the stars, "We've already checked that subject, and it appears your taste buds and consumption systems are very similar with that of us Terran beings, allowing you to consume our world's crops and such without fear of foreign bacteria infesting your innards and causing inner turmoil or similar bodily disturbings."

"...I didn't understand diddly-squat of what he just said," Donkey Kong said, with similarly confused looks nodding in approval. "Albert, can't you ever converse with normal people without getting all academic?" Alexandra told the old man. "Sorry, Miss Royalhart, that's just how I roll," the reynard "lab-rat" told his superior's daughter. "He said that the scientists have already checked your suspicions, Mr. McCloud, and found out that the food on Earth is alright for you to eat without fear of food poisoning," Falisa said in a translating way for the professor. "Why didn't he just say so?" the interstellar-traveling fox asked, with Mario explaining in a matter-of-facts way, "We're talking about an old _professor_, you know."

"Enough with the food talk, more with the limbless guy's story," Ash said to get the story-telling going. "Okie-dokie, then," Michael said, and continued with the last introduction.

"Rayman, you're the residential hero of the Crossroads of Dreams, a magical island-realm created many eons ago by the spirit Polokus and inhabited by thousands of strange, weird and fantastic creatures born from Polokus' dreams.

"As a youthful creature, you were pretty slap-happy being a new life-form at the start of his life. But after various misadventures, and later your fight against the nefarious Mr. Dark and his henchmen and monsters, you became mellower and began to further understand your powers and responsibility among your friends.

"Then came the Robo-Pirates, led by the short and short-tempered Admiral Razorbeard, who had already blown over a hundred different worlds to space dust and enslaved those world's inhabitants, and were planning to do so with your world too. Everything seemed lost when you found out that your planet's core, or 'the Heart of the World', had been destroyed by the pirates and scattered as a vast number of gold-yellow Lums, gleaming, fly-like creatures who are normally found red on your homeworld.

"Without the "Heart", you and your companions became powerless against the mechanical buccaneers, letting them ravage your world like a plague. But, they hadn't foreseen your escape from their slave-ship with some help from your friend Globox, and after saving your fairy friend, Ly, you learned from her the way to awaken Polokus, the only one capable of eradicating Razorbeard's forces.

"It took some time, but eventually you gathered the four masks needed to awaken Polokus, beating your way through the pirates and their various strongholds along the way, and returned to the Robo-Pirates' main galleon to defeat Razorbeard yourself, and rescue Globox who had been re-captured and were about to become target-practice for Razorbeard's new giant battle-suit Grolgoth. You engaged him in battle, and after a fall into the core of the ship, eventually beat the pirate leader's mecha-monstrosity into scrap, and even when Razorbeard activated the self-destruct mechanism on Grolgoth to kill you in the explosion, you survived, but his giant prison ship was destroyed, as were his forces by Polokus' powers.

"Some years later, after life had returned to normal (well, as normal as a fairy-tale world can be, at least), a new threat appeared: the Hoodlums, Red Lums corrupted into Black Lums and clothed in big, animated suits of cloth. They were led by a crazed Lum called André, who had made it his goal to transform the 'Heart of the World' into his personal army and wreak havoc amongst the citizens of Crossroads. But he were stopped, unintentionally, by Globox who swallowed him after you beat the suit of him, which sent you on a adventure with them around the world to find a doctor who could get André out of Globox before the former got the latter killed with his influential behavior, all the while you two being hunted down by the Hoodlums for doing away with their leader.

"Finally, after traveling through the tunnel systems under the Desert of the Knaaren, home of the titular race of carnivorous warriors, you managed to rid Globox of the wicked Lum, but you were too late to neutralize the little bugger.

"Finding his headquarters and blowing up the machine that multiplied the Black Lums in vast numbers, you climbed up the Tower of Leptys, a giant tower raised in honor of the Knaaren's father Deity, were you battled against Reflux, the same Knaaren you had fought against in the tunnels to gain the Knaaren king Gumsi's trust, and who had vowed to kill you for his mutilating defeat at your hands, making him an ideal partner for André. To better their chances against you, Reflux had stolen king Gumsi's magic scepter to summon Leptys's powers and absorb them, thus making him a half-God.

"Even then, with the help of Globox and a flying machine with a gun on it, you killed Reflux and turned André back into a nonthreatening Red Lum. Sadly, André later reverted into a Black Lum again, but after beating the snot out of him and his men again, and saving Globox's butt again, he disappeared, reduced to a harmless spirit.

"Then, after those events, you were captured by a bunch of rabbits called the Rabbids, named so for their sudden bursts of rabid behavior, which origins from long ago when other creatures played numerous pranks on them on accost of their kind nature back then, causing them to shelter themselves under the planet's surface, only to recently return as manic bunnies to give their former mobbers a little payback in the form of taking over the world.

"You were just unlucky enough to get captured at the start of their invasion, but through showing your skills in various challenges hosted in and around the stadium you were holed up in, you gained their adoration as a great crowd-pleaser, making your personal cell more luxurious for every day. Also, you were awarded plungers, a tool seen as a great weapon by the Rabbids (only more proof of their craziness), for very tough and funny games like racing, plunger-shooting or dance-offs. With those in stock, you were able to enact a way of escape, only for you to later infiltrate them and spy on their plans for world conquest, giving you the opportunity to sabotage them and leave them some mellow fellows who only do minor pranks now and again, thought they have been known to create quite the mess sometimes still.

"Other than that, you lead a carefree lifestyle, hanging out with your friends, snoozing of for days on end, and just enjoy life as the natural bachelor you are," Michael ended, clearly being a little short on air after such a long speech.

* * *

Rayman, the limbless one, was very impressed by the canine for knowing all this information about him and his escapades. 'Now this guy sounds almost like he could be one of my closest friends, although I can clearly see that he doesn't have even the slightest resemblance to any being, wild or conscious, from the Glade that I know of. Although his girlfriend have kind of the same build like Ly, if only a bit more curvaceous or something, if that's even possible, but still nice-looking like her. Well, anyway, he seems like the kind of guy I would hang out with, especially by the way he talks sometime. And who knows, maybe he could be just as cool like he sounds. In that case, I'm all into being his friend,' the limbless dude thought to himself, before being interrupted by a loud growl as though it came from a beast.

Many of the men in the pit jumped at the loud sound, though they were relieved at finding the source to be Mario, who had a pretty famished look on his face. "Sorry, guys, but I-a haven't eat breakfast today. So, about that lunch you promised to us, Miss, uh, Loyalhart..." "Actually, it's **R**oyalhart," Alexandra told the plumber, "But yeah, I think it's time for us to get you some proper grub to chew on." "Oh! Oh! Do you have bananas?" Donkey Kong asked with a hungry look himself. "A whole plantation worth of it," Falisa answered the ape with a cute smile.

"**Banana Slamma!**" the gorilla screamed with joy, already on his way to scale the walls, but unable to as the walls were made of polished steel ,with no outcroppings except for the platform Michael and the others stood on. "Aaw, nuts! How are we supposed to get out of this pit?" DK demanded to know, getting a little angry at the thought of being cheated out on his favorite snack.

"Chill out, Mister Kong," Albert, the elderly fox-doctor, tried to reason with DK, "And let me demonstrate the elevator for the pit. Now, every one of you down there, stand near the center of the room," he commanded. After the seven characters got onto said position, Albert took a small control pad out of his lab coat, and pushed a blue button. A second later, a bright light (but not a blinding one) shone under the heroes' feet, and five seconds later, they found themselves floating upwards on a shining disc under their feet.

Fifteen seconds later, they landed on the platform, and as the light disc faded away, they could now better see the ones who had brought them from their homes.

Michael was the first to step up to them, sticking his left paw out as to shake hands with them. "Sorry for the long schpiel, but it's just how I am. Now, for some shorter introductions. I'm Michael. Michael Arnesen."

"Nice to meet you, Michael," Mario said, being the first of the guests to shake hands with him, followed the others in turn, getting to know the feel of this knowledgeable mutt's hand, who had a pretty strong grip fitting of a wolf-man.

"I'm Falisa Gaup," Falisa said, giving her hand out to shake just like her mate. She was prettily surprised when Sly went down on one knee and kissed the back of her hand. "Ah, Miss Gaup, you've got such a tender touch, I feel like I'm holding an angel." Hearing that, Falisa blushed like a rose under her cheek fur, making Michael quip in, in a pretend-jealous manner, "Hey! Keep up that way, and I'll have to call the cops at you for wooing **my **girlfriend." "Ah, well then, milady," Sly said melodramatically, "Maybe we weren't meant to be." "Just stick to getting hunted instead of hunting, you Don Juan you," Falisa said laughing, giving the raccoon-man a gentle push.

"My name is Alexandra Royalhart," Alexandra said, having picked the hand of the green-clad Link, "But you guys can just call me Alex." "Pleasure to meet you, Miss Alex," the Hylian warrior said with a polite expression, taking note of the lioness' long and lustrous hair, which was ebony white on her right, while the left was a deep ivory black. "So, seeing as you are a lioness," he said, thereafter looking at Julius, "I can only guess that the elderly male lion with the white mane and the dapper suit is a relative of yours?"

"Well, Duh! Of course he is, he's my **father**," Alex said plainly. "He just so happens to be the financial funder of this incredible place with in-built teleporters we're standing in, too," Falisa said, which made the newcomers swing their heads in Julius' direction. "Whoa, that guy must be _super-rich_ to afford to get _this_ place built," Ash said, finally noticing just how high the ceiling was in the large room they were standing in. It could easily contain the whole of Misty's gym, swimming pool and all, and still have room for more!

"I-i-i must say I'm honored to meet a man of such great wealth," Fox said a bit shakingly when he shook hands with the old lion, getting a mental picture of what kind of wealthy person Julius must've been to afford something as high-tech and expensive as a teleportation facility like the one they had been transported by. It really was something else to see other people than Lylatians being able to make a contraption like this, if only a bit primitive compared to Lylat standards, but a revolutionary invention anyway you look at it.

"The honour is mine, Mr. McCloud, to meet a man like you who have faced odds I couldn't have dreamt of surviving," the old Panthera Leo told the vulpine with a kind, but strong voice. "Now then, my name is Julius Alexander Horatio Royalhart," Julius said with a slight British accent, "Founder and CEO of Royalhart Industries, Inc."

"Well, well, the old "Lion King of the US", himself," Sly said out loud, finally recognizing the bureaucrat-cat in front of him, looking like he had found some proper prey for his skills. "I must allow myself to say I, too, am honored to meet such a rich man with as much influence as you." "Well, I must say, sadly, that I'm a little _less_ enthusiastic in having **the** Sly Cooper himself in close range," Julius said warily, knowing the incredible streak of the young raccoon.

"Dad! I thought we had explained it already, Mr. Cooper does NOT steal from others than those who deserve it in the first place," Alexandra said, looking a bit annoyed at her old man for being wary of the righteous Master Thief. "Well, how do either of you explain all those museums and villas whose owners are without any connection to past or present crimes or criminals _at all,_ that have all been looted of something extremely valuable, with no trace of the thief _but a raccoon-shaped calling card_?" the old lion asked with a frown, and a hint of curiosity in his aged face.

"Easy there, old man," Sly said, trying to calm down the "industry fat cat" in front of him, "The answer is really simple, actually; I did it for the challenge." At this, many faces looked dumb at the raccoon. "Well, hello! A Master Thief can't afford to get out of shape, can he? And by the way, all _those particular_ _goods_ that I've stolen through my career as a thief, always ended up on Inspector Fox's desk. And then (and this is the good part) sometimes when she returned the stolen valuables, she was lucky enough to find out just what kind of people owned the goods I stole the night before. Come on, every one won on it! I got a good workout, Carmelita got the glory, and the bandits got their just desserts in the slammer." At this, everyone, even Julius, got a look of convinced surprise.

"See? I told you he wasn't as bad as the media credits him," Michael spoke up, giving the lion no other option but to give in. "Alright, you scamps, I rest my case," the big cat said with a defeated smile. His daughter and her friends just beamed back, giving Sly a look that said, "Good on you, dude."

Before anyone else said anything, Mario raised his voice. "Uh, the lunch?" "Oh, oh, yeah. Sorry. We'll show you the way right away," Michael said with a slight grin and his ears down in an apologetic way. "We'll introduce you to the rest of us while we eat," Falisa said, having walked up to the room's exit and opening it, followed by the rest into the corridors of the facility.


	5. Ch 4: Lunch, with a hint of Punch

A rocky Lunch, with a hint of Punch

As the group went down the spacey corridors of the facility, Ash came up to the spectacled fox called Ben, and asked him something that had the trainer puzzled, "I know I'll sound dumb now, but are we on some other planet or something, since you guys are animals that talk and walk like humans?" "Ah, so the teen's got a brain under all that hair," Ben replied, chuckling at Ash who frowned in response. As Ben stifled his chuckle, he gave the human an apologetic look and said, "Sorry, that was a low joke, I know." "Alright, but give me an answer already!" Ash said a bit grumpy to the vulpine man.

"Well, you're correct," Ben told the trainer, before adding in, "In a way. This planet is not your homeworld, thought it is at the same time." "Huh? What do you mean?" Ash asked even more confused. Ben just looked at him with a mysterious smile and gave him a cryptic answer, "That's not in my place to say. Just wait and see, and creation itself will show you," after which he left the teen for Alexandra.

* * *

While Ash just paced on with a confused mind, Sly made his way up to Michael, thinking of asking him how in the name of the gods the lupine knew of his ancestry _and_ his affair with Carmelita in the first place. He was halted halfway by the half-wolf who said, "Hang on, Cooper. The answer is so simple and strange, you'll be knocked-off your tail-rings. Just wait, it'll be worth it." "I'll be hanging onto that, then," the thief said with a grin of anticipation.

Someone else with anticipative thoughts was Mario and Donkey Kong. "Oh, I'm-a so hungry, I could eat ten fried Goombas," the plumber said famished. "Puh! I'm so hungry I could eat twelve nests' worth of Necky-eggs," the brown gorilla said in a way to sound better than his rival at eating. "Well then, I could-a eat a dozen-and-a-half Monty Moles, dirt included," Mario said back indignantly, with DK retaliating, "But I could eat three dozens of Zinger-wasps with their honey on 'em!"

The two of them bickered like that until they all were right in front of the building's mess hall, where they were greeted by a young raccoon-girl apparently in her late teens. "Ah, finally the 'heroes' arrive for lunch," she said, before looking at Alexandra with a nervous smile. "Uh, Alex, I have to tell you, Leomph got really hyped when he heard that we are gonna team up with Mario and Co. _today_, and so, he went on a bit of a "happy rampage" in here."

"Oh, great job, Abigail," Alexandra said with a look of both displease and slight amusement. "How much damage have he done?" Falisa asked with grinning anticipation. Just then, a great "Smash!" could be heard from the room inside, followed by an angry voice with a Jamaican accent yelling some colorful swears. "Right now, I suspect half the dining room," Abigail said, "And from the sound of it, I bet one of Pablo's best stew-pots too, since he laments so violently about it," she ended, nervously twirling a lock of her blue hair.

"Are you telling us that we're gonna eat with a violent pet or something!" Rayman asked, voicing all the newcomers' question. "Well, Leomph is usually pretty calm, but he's got a very primal way of expressing joy and excitement," Alexandra told them, before Michael quipped in with a chuckle, "And when he gets into a happy-mood, man, does that lion get raving!", followed by yet another crash and more accompanying curses. "So, he's a wild lion, then," Link said out loud, with the fox Ben snorting in humor, "Hah! Not just any wild lion, my man. Wait 'til you see what he's made of!"

"What do you me-" the Hylian asked, stopped midsentence by a very loud roaring sound, shortly before something big and grey smashed through the doors to the dining hall, heading straight to Mario, of everyone!

Before the plumber could see what was about to crush him, a magic barrier suddenly surrounded him, with the giant grey creature colliding into it and collapsing on the floor in front of him. "Miss Rington!" an old voice could be heard from the back of the corridor where everyone stood, "Haven't I told you NOT to loosen the rock monster's shackles when he's around newcomers of these futuristic halls!" At the end of the reprimanding speech, the old wizard, Kalasta, appeared from the corner of the corridor, the old man having been left behind the others on their way to lunch.

"Seriously, _sage_, how would I know he was gonna act like this when he found out our new friends had come _today_!" Abigail said back, her ringed tail bristling in indignation, "I myself hadn't heard about their arrival until half an hour ago!" "Hey, hey, hey! Calm down, you two," Michael intertwined between the ringtail-woman and the old druid, "No one's harmed here. Well, except for Leomph with his new concussion."

At this, Kalasta disrupted his barrier-spell, making the magic force-field around Mario disappear, with the plumber looking at the old mage in shaking gratefulness. "T-t-thanks for the shielding there, mister mage," he said. "No problem, my portly friend," the mage said back, "And the name is Kalasta Timeth."

"Okay, then thanks, Kalasta..." Mario started, but stopped when he turned his head and looked at his assailant. "MAMA MIA!" He screamed, jumping away from the beast with the prowess of a kangaroo, much to the surprise of most of the spectators, except DK, and much to Michael's apparent joy, seeing as the wolf-fox had a mirthy grin that showed all his canine teeth. _"He IS the real deal!"_ the young mutt thought with glee.

"You didn't a-tell me you had a **Thwomp-monster** for a pet!" Mario shouted in a way that told you he was **really **scared **and** unprepared for this revelation. "What's a Thwomp?" Fox asked, so confused by the sudden event that he had drawn his blaster, just in case a brawl was at hand.

"Calm down, everyone!" Falisa soothingly told the group, "There's nothing to fear." ""Nothing to fear"? NOTHING TO FEAR!" Mario shouted, scared out of his wits. "Here I am, suddenly face-to-face with something that Bowser could a-very well have bred to squash me with (which it almost did, too!), AND YOU TELL ME THERE'S **NOTHING TO FEAR?"** "Yes," the leopard-lynx- girl told him simply.

As Mario was shaking from the experience, the others got a better look at Leomph. The strange creature looked pretty much like a lion in physique, but he was made of something vastly different than flesh; He was made of stone. As such, his features didn't have the natural softness you'd find in a normal animal, but instead of having a jagged, rocky build, he was more square and polished in his grey looks, like a statue.

His head and face were like one of the Thwomps themselves, except for the fact that he had a muzzle like a lion instead of being flat-faced like a normal Thwomp, with whiskers impregnated on the muzzle sides and a snout on the front, and with a set of jaws like a predator instead of a usual Thwomp's more square teeth. Also, he had one formation on each side of the upper part of his head, placed fittingly behind his stone-spike 'mane', which both looked like lion-ears **and** worked like them _too_.

"Look, Mario," Michael tried to explain to the exasperated Italian, "Leomph **is** of a subspecies of Thwomp, but he's on _**our**_ side. You don't have to worry about him hurting you. ...On purpose, that is." "I'm-a not sure that will calm me down," Mario said warily, being used to beat the crap out of monsters like this, not **work** with them. "Look," Michael tried again to negotiate, "I know he's not anything like Mallow, Geno, Goombario, Bombette, Koops, Ms. Mowz or any of your other partners from past adventures, but he **is** on _our_ side.

"Then again, both Bowser and Wario _have_ fought on your side on some occasions, and they've both been of huge help too. Not to forget, some of your other former enemies turned a new leaf and became valuable allies in times of need, like the ghost of the pirate king Cortez when you and your compatriots were assaulted by the X-nauts during your search for the Crystal Stars.

"Look, all I'm trying to say is that you just have to trust him, and you'll see he will be a good pal to be with," Michael finished, hoping to get his idol to think twice before he judged the living cat-statue.

"_Well_," Mario said, remembering the times a fearsome foe had turned out to be not so bad after all. "Oh, alright then," he finally blurted out, "You've convinced me. But if that Thwomp-cat tries to chew on me, I'm a-gonna plant a hammer in his face." "Sounds good enough to me," Michael said, turning his head to Alex, "How about you, Ally?" "No problem," she answered, grinning at the thought, "He needs to learn to chill out anyway. Just don't turn him into rubble, okay? He's really cozy under that rock hide." "Okie dokie, Miss Royalhart," the plumber told the white-and-black-haired lioness.

"Okay, now that this is sorted out, CAN WE PLEASE GO EAT NOW?" Donkey Kong shouted, making everyone jump (including waking Leomph) and look at him like he was mad. Soon enough, everyone heard rumbling coming from between their chests and groins, making Michael laugh at the sound, and afterwards the rest followed suit.

"Okay, okay," Michael finally said, his own stomach sounding like a hungry, angry wolf on its own, "I think we should head in before DK _really_ goes bananas." "Right!" everyone agreed, before heading in the mess hall.

* * *

As was expected, the mess hall was _a_ **mess!** Half of the chairs and tables were either upside-down or unrecognizable piles, with lots of knifes, spoons and forks jumbled together with various cooking equipment on the floor, all in the spill of a pot-full of tomato soup and heaps of porridge.

As they entered, they were met with the sight of a bunch of cleaners of various species, mostly birds and monkeys, who all looked up from their work when they heard the doors open up rather creakingly after Leomph's number on them.

As the gang walked in, one of the cleaners, a rather chubby penguin woman saw Alexandra, making her way to her and giving her an angry look. "Look, Miss Royalhart, can't you _please_ put that, that giant _kitty-cat-Golem_ of yours in a Zoo or something! He's making up such a mess around here, we're tiring ourselves to our bones cleaning up after his rampages," she said with a rather thick South-African voice, looking pretty tired too of working under such circumstances.

"Don't worry, Marian," Alex told the swimming-adept avian female. "Leomph is just a playful guy, he doesn't mean to give you trouble." "Well, means it or not, he STILL makes a big mess when no-one's a-looking," Marian told her back. "Yeah," one of the monkey cleaners, a male gibbon, piped in, "He gives us so much dirt to clean, I'm seriously thinking about quitting."

"Listen to me," Julius interrupted, "In just some days, the rock-cat will be out of here; I will personally see to it." "Dad!" Alexandra said at her father, with the older lion nudging her and whispering to her, "At that time, he'll be traveling with you and your friends on your journey," at which Alex shut up, and hid a little grin.

"And furthermore," Julius said to the cleaners, "I will raise all your wages by two dollars an hour for overtime-work caused by my daughter's rock-pet."At this, even the sour Marian got a pleased look of awe for their boss, saying, "All hail Mr. Royalhart!" followed by her co-workers, before getting back to work with enhanced vigor.

"Now when that's out of the way, where's Pablo?" Julius asked out loud. "Right owa here, big-a-boss fatty catty!" the Jamaican voice from earlier could be heard from the kitchen, both of which belonged to a lanky, brown alligator-man in an oversized chef's outfit who just entered the dining hall.

"Jippes! Kremling!" Donkey Kong yelped, getting into a battle-stance before Ben dove in. "Relax, you big ape!" Ben said, trying to calm the gorilla, "Pablo's from Jamaica, not from Crocodile Island." "Come on, DK!" Mario said to his monkey-pal, "Not every gavial you see is in league with K. Rool."

"Hey, naked monkey-man with the tie fad, I'm not a bad cad just 'cause I'm rad and a bit mad," the Cajun Croc told him. "But right now, I'm very upset for what your big pet did to my omelet, you get?" Here he looked at Alexandra with a frown. "Whoa, he sounds just like Funky!" DK said with a chuckle, gladly surprised at meeting someone else than Funky with some fun lingo to express themselves with.

"I am so sorry, Pablo, It's my fault," Abigail, the raccoon-girl told him apologetically, "I thought I could be able to watch him by myself, and then we got the news that Mr. Mario and the others had arrived, and he just turned happy, and I tried to calm him, and he wouldn't stop, and then he raided your kitchen, and I scolded him for it, but he didn't listen to me, and then he-" "Okay, mask-lady, enough info to the head!" Pablo said holding his ears (well, more accurately, where his ear-holes were).

"So then," the Jamaican reptile looked at his old friends and new customers with a grin, now a bit cooler after his funk, "These are my new food-consumers from outer space or somethin', wasn't it?" at which he looked at Rayman with a funny expression. "Actually, just some of them are from 'outer space', Pab," Michael told the gator. "Alright then, Michelangelo my man," Pablo said, "Then I, Pablo Frederico Santos, will be pleased to make you dudes and babes meals that will blow your mind _and_ your famishment to kingdom come, and back for more."

"Finally," Mario said, his stomach groaning like crazy by now. "You've got a-some spaghetti?" "Sure, mista plumba," the brown lizard with a much too big chef's hat told him before he shouted into the kitchen, "Adrian!" "Aye?" someone with an Irish accent answered. "One triple Spaghetti Bolognese, on the double if you could, please!" "One triple Spaghetti Bolognese, checked in and ready to be fixed in 'a breeze!" was the response.

Mario was very surprised at the crocodilian's spot-on intuition, because that was **exactly** what he wanted, and Mario hadn't even said what kind (or amount) of spaghetti he wanted in the first place.

"Hey, how about some bananas?" Donkey Kong almost shouted in hunger. "Ya want 'em raw or cooked?" Pablo asked the big monkey. "Anything works for me, just as long as I can eat it!" DK said back in famished response. "Roy and Marco! Two dozen Banana Sausages marinated in orange juice (roasted, not burned), five stuffed Banana-Cream Pies (with extra apple-and-pineapple-fill), and ten gallons of banana-flavored Ice-Cream with a cherry on top!" "Right away, El Cheftain Pablo!" two tough-sounding Spanish fellows answered their superior from inside the kitchen.

At the sound of his coming meal, Donkey became so happy he almost fainted right on the spot. "Just add in Candy, and I'm in heaven," he whispered in joy.

"Ash, what do you want?" Michael asked the spiky-haired teen. "Well, right now I could really go for a burger," Ash said, quite awestruck by the apparently superior cooking skills of his new friends' cooking squad. "Say no more, my friend," Pablo told him before shouting into the kitchen, "Beth!" "Yes, Chief?" a feminine voice was heard. "One big Cheeseburger, with salad, dressing, teh works!" Pablo said. "On the way!" Beth answered right back.

"Whoa, that thin, brown Feraligatr-man's gotta be a mind reader or something," Ash said in awe at Pablo's spot-on orders. "Yeah, something like that," Michael said as to answer the monster-trainer, "Although he can only predict what kind of food someone wants, and nothing else."

"Now then, who else wants some meat?" Pablo asked the group, with the half-wolf, the Hylian warrior, the fox-pilot and the spectacled reynard, the two raccoons and the cat-girls giving him hungry looks of approval. "Right, then. Fritz! Björn! Manuel! Ishmael!" "Oui!" "Ja!" "Si!" "Da!" "Round up some frozen cattle and fry some bloody beefs and heavy meatballs for our famished diners!"

"Comrade Santos, you **know** I don't like it fen you say _"frozen cattle"_: you remind me of poor Mamma ba-" "Back in Vladivostok, ya, ya, ya, heard that a billion times already, Ishmael. Now shut your cow-trap and fix us some meals before I **make one** outta 'ya!" Pablo shouted to his Russian ox _rôtisseur_.

"Well then, mista No-Limb," Pablo looked down on Rayman, "Want some bones to replace your missing ones? Thie, he, he, he, he, he, he!" He laughed at his own joke, "Okey, sorry 'bout that." "No thanks, Chef Pablo," Rayman said back, finding the reptile-man both funny and unnerving at the joke, "I'd rather prefer some fruit right now." "A-okey, then," the alligator said smiling before shouting at the kitchen again, "Erika!" "Yes, Pablo dear?" "Get your lov'ly butt in fifth gear and whip up one of your _fha-ei-mous_ Fruity Carnage salads!" "Whatever you say, Honey-dile!" was his answer from a lovely female's voice from inside the kitchen.

"And I guess you three are just gonna have some sandwiches, cappuccino and herbal tea, as usual?" the 'gator-chef more _said_ matter-of-factly to his finely-dressed boss, the hooded mage and the old vulpine professor, rather than _asked_ of them. "Ho-ho-ho. "Take it away", Pablo," Julius just chuckled to his _sous_-chef. "Why ask something known to you already?" Kalasta said with sarcastic wisdom dripping from his old mouth. "Don't forget, I want the mayonnaise in two layers between the ham and asparagus," Albert reminded him. "Right away, Sirs," Pablo said before walking into the kitchen himself.

Halfway in the door, he turned back and said to Alexandra, "Oh, and if that rock-lion of yours want something fancy to chew on, tell him to look in a jewelry!" At that, Leomph growled in indignation, with the Cajun Croc just turning and running into his workplace again, laughing like a maniac. "Shh, shh," Alex soothed her big pet, scratching Leomph on his hard back with her sharp nail-claws, which actually made the stone-beast purr in response, getting a content look on his otherwise savage face.

"You always know how to make him calm, Alex," Abigail said with admiration for her friend, "I wish I could just make him sit perfectly still for five minutes," at which she got a longing look at the granite feline. "Don't give up hope yet, sport," Alex told her ringtailed girlfriend, "You'll be having him standing on his hind paws for you before this year's ended." "Hopefully, you'll be right," Abigail said, looking a bit happier at the thought.

* * *

Not half an hour later, Pablo came out again, just in time to see Marian the penguin and her cleaner's crew putting the last table right-side-up after Leomph's "happy rave". "Now then, dudes and dudettes," He announced to his diners, "Lunch is ready!"

"Yippy!" Michael, Falisa, Mario, DK, Rayman and most of the other young adults whooped in hungry joy, rushing to find a good table to eat on. "Humph," Kalasta huffed, "And these are the "heroes" who are going to save our very existence!" "Don't worry yourself about them, sage," Julius told the canine wizard of the old arts of magic, "They are still young. They'll learn to behave like proper folks in time." "I hope you are right, though I _highly_ doubt it," the ancient man of the spells retorted, only making the lesser-aged business-cat chuckle at the druid's dry wit.

As the younger men and women sat down at some tables close to the middle of the mess hall, Pablo entered the room, followed by two slightly bulky dark-brown beavers with long thin mustaches, one tall female grey mouse in her mid-twenties, a fit male red-furred golden retriever around the mouse-girl's age, two thin, middle-aged blue-furred rats with a big fat brown bear walking in-between them, one big black ox (Ishmael), and a lovely young crocodile-woman with emerald-green scales and flowing, blond hair(Erika), each carrying one or two plates with the food for the hungry guests and their hosts.

"Now then, my friends," the Cajun alligator told his patrons once their respective meals were set in front of them, "Dig in."

And my, oh my, did they take his words by heart! Pablo actually had to cook TWO triple Spaghetti Bolognese for Mario, dozens more Banana Sausages for Donkey Kong, and a whole new batch of beefs and burgers for the others (sans Rayman, but he demanded one more of Erika's Fruit Carnage salads).

* * *

When the last bits of meat and fruit were gone from the plates, the diners were in a content mood. Mario laid back in his chair, moaning in delight. "Ah, THAT was one of the best spaghetti-meals I've a-ever had in my life," the plumber said rubbing his belly, shortly before he made a rather loud belch, which made some of the other's laugh at Mario's follow-up blush. "I can understand that," Sly chuckled in response, "The way you eat, you could have taken on Murray in an eating competition."

"That's kinda flattering," Mario said to the raccoon, "But, uh, who is Murray again?" "Oh, he's one of my best friends," Sly began to tell the human plumber, "And both the getaway-driver and strong-man of my old team. I've known him ever since I was put in an orphanage, after my father's..." Here, Sly got silent, but before his eyes got even slightly wet, Mario interrupted, "Hey, paisano, there's no need to cry. Michael already told us about a-that during the introductions." "I'm sorry," Sly told him, "It's only that every time I think about what Clockwerk did to him, I always get sad. Memories of being orphaned like that kind of linger on in your mind, you know."

"I'm really sorry about that," Mario said wholeheartedly. Seeing as he had grown up with _his_ family until him and Luigi became old enough to move out, he never had to face something as horrible as that (well, except for the times when him and Luigi was infants and the Koopas tried to do away with them, though with how their friend Yoshi helped them **and** the way Bowser's forces was way back then, they never was in as tough a spot when they were kids as the young procyon lotor was on his eight birthday, you know). Still, the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom had enough experience as a grown man to understand how cruel the world can be sometimes.

Trying to cheer the good-natured master thief up a bit, he said, "I'd a-like to meet your friend Murray sometime." "I'd bet he'd loved to meet you too, but sadly I'm no longer in touch with him." "Why?" Mario asked, before he remembered what Michael had told them, "Oh, right. You're a policeman now." "Yes," Sly said, continuing with, "but now that I think about it, I didn't wear my thieving outfit when I got sucked away to this place, nor did I have my cane either." At this, Mario got a quizzal look on his face, "Huh? Then why do you have your old clothes and cane now, if you didn't have them in the first place?"

"I can answer that," Kalasta said, putting in his two cents of info to the thief and plumber, "Young master Arnesen told me to cast a spell which would make sure all of you were dressed in your trademark clothing and accessories , whatever he thinks that's gonna be of use to us," the old mage said a bit cranky, ending his explanation with, "That spell alone took five minutes to cast, while it was only you, thief of the honorable Coopers, who really needed a dress-change."

"Whoa," both Mario and Sly said in awe at the wizard's powers. "I didn't know there was a spell for cloth-swapping," Mario said, having been aqcuaintanced with a great deal of magicians, both good and evil, in his travels. "That would have come in handy if I was out of disguises sometimes," Sly said with a grin that told you he was fantasizing about what kind of heists he could pull of with a clothing-change spell.

"Sure it would," Kalasta said, before telling the raccoon, "only thing is, it takes two years to get it perfectly right, and then it's also the timing, the source of clothing fabric, measurements, and-" "Alright, alright, I get it," Sly said, his fantasy deflated in a flash when he heard what other abilities the spell-caster needed for this spell. His specialty was being a sneaky thief, not a brainy calculator. That was Bentley's forte.

"Alright then," Fox said, after he had let his dish digest long enough, "Now I think you owe us an explanation about what you want us for." "Yes," Link agreed, "I'm curious as well. And last time I was swept to another world, the premise _wasn't_ a cherry one." "Yeah, what with imminent doom practically looming over you and your friends," Ben said, reminding the small crowd about what Michael had said about Termina and it's moon when talking about Link's past.

"Well, of course we are going to tell you," Michael said, before Falisa chimed in, "But shouldn't we wait until your friends arrive?" "Hold on!" Ash said, "Are you telling us that you can bring our friends here, too?" "Exactemunto, Mr. Ketchum," Alexandra told the teen trainer, "We had planned to warp them here right after you guys were out of the teleportation rooms, but because of your famishment, we had to delude that to now."

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Donkey Kong shouted in excitement, "Hurry up and start that warp-thingy again. I can't wait to show Diddy and Candy this place!" "Hang on, you bananaholic," Falisa said to the gorilla, "There's no need to fret. The warp-portals engines are still running, and so, we don't have to wait that long for your partners to appear."

Just as she finished that, two duck lab-assistants came running into the mess hall so fast, they almost looked ready for take-off the way they were flapping their arms. "Professor Turner! Professor Turner!" the shorter duck shouted almost breathlessly to Albert, "There're some very upset people in the warp-pit!" "What are you saying?" the old fox asked the duck. "They appeared out of the warp rooms just some minutes ago," the short bird told his superior. "And they are really stirring up for a fight down there too," the taller mallard continued, "We tried to calm them down, but when we did, one of them shot at us with an electrical charge." "WHAT?" Both Sly and Ash yelped simultaneously, making them look at each other with confused looks.

"Seems like they came sooner than we had planned," Ben said, then looked at Albert with a light frown, "Uncle, I think next time, you'll have to double-check the portals' entrance-locks." "Don't look at me," the old vulpine told his nephew, "How was I gonna remember that with our guests and your girlfriend making such a fuzz about lunch? And besides," here Albert looked at the two ducks in lab coats, "I thought YOU, my assistants, had locked the portals when our guests arrived." "Sorry, sir," the taller duck told his boss, "We were just so mesmerized by mister Arnesen's tales of the newcomers' lives, we got a bit sloppy-handed with the controls."

"Now isn't the time to accuse each other about this slip," Michael intertwined, afraid anyone would put the blame on **him** for this. "Let's just get back to the portal room to see who it is," the half-wolf said to his friends, "And hopefully, if they are friends of yours," here he looked at Mario, Fox, Rayman and the other first portal-travelers, "They will calm down when they see you." "We'll see," Sly said in a half-whisper.

And with that, the gang ran back to the portal-room.

* * *

Author's Notes: _Well, that's chapter four._

_It IS a bit long, but with such a cast, what'd you expect?_


	6. Ch 5: Strange Reunions, part 1

A strange Reunion, part 1

Just as Michael and Mario set their feet into the room where the portals were, they heard a most recognizable nervous voice yelling from the pit.

"MARIO! Where are you, Big Bro?"

"Luigi!" Mario shouted in response before he ran over to the pit. Not two seconds after he was on the edge, he had to quickly evade a lightning-projectile faster than any Bullet Bill he had dodged before. "What the hell-spiced meatball!" the red-garbed plumber said in shock, just as the "shock-shot" disintegrated on the ceiling in a flurry of sparks.

"Hey, watch it, lady!" they heard a young voice tell the individual who had fired the shot, "You almost hit Mario with that funny bullet of yours." "SHUT UP!" they suddenly heard a female voice yell down in the pit, "I have no idea where I am or why I'm standing right next to a weird, big-nosed, furless monkey-like thing dressed like a plumber and some small, green, funny T-Rex! And I don't want to be told how to behave by a big-eyed chimp who doesn't wear pants and rides on a rhino!" "Listen, my dear lady," another, calmer female voice was heard, "It really isn't polite to shoot someone just because they are of an alien species. And they didn't try to hurt you or anyone else here either."

"Well, well," Michael said with a grin, making sure the ones in the lower part of the room could hear him, "The Green Thunder and the all-eating dinosaur, the jungle-king's little buddy and their horned steed, the master-thief's jewel of his life, and the Cerinian survivor, all in one pit."

"What! Who said that?" the angrier female asked angrily, quickly adding, "And what do you mean with "the **master-thief's** _jewel of his life"_?"

"Easy, easy. One subject at the time. The loud culprit you seek, Senõrita Fox," Michael said to the woman in the pit, "Would be me." At this, the half-fox came forth and looked down in the pit. There, he saw one man who looked a lot like Mario, except he was taller, a bit thinner, and he wore green instead of red. Also, there was a green dinosaur with him that _did_ look like a small T-Rex, only he was a lot more friendlier-looking, and he wore a saddle and red shoes.

One that wasn't as friendly-looking at the moment in the pit was a very angry-but-still-beautiful, red-furred vixen with long raven-black hair braided into a ponytail at her back, dressed in brown boots, clinging deep-blue pants, a yellow/light-brown bomber-jacket with a black tube-top with a zipper underneath, yellow gloves and armed with a strange gun with the Interpol symbol imprinted on its sides.

Some ten feet to her right, there stood another vixen, although this female vulpine had ocean-blue fur instead of red. She wore a clinging, dark-blue cat-suit that accentuated her fur-coloring and body-shape, and also, she wore a silver tiara with a blue gem imbedded in its front on her brow, slightly hidden under her blue short curls of nice headhair, and three silver bands around her lightly poofy tail.

Three other fellows down in the pit were a smaller chimpanzee with a long tail, a red cap and a ditto-colored shirt with two stars on its front, and he sat on top of a big, feral rhinoceros with a rather large head for one of his species. Also, there was a short guy that stood behind the green-clad plumber who had a round, white hat with red spots on his head, which made him look like he had a mushroom for a head. He also wore brown shoes, white pants and a blue vest with gold trim.

* * *

As soon as the black-haired vixen saw the half-wolf, she became a little calmer. But that didn't stop her from continuing in a harsh, Latin-accented voice, "So, you're the one who's behind my partner's disappearance, then!" "You're a bright one, Inspector Fox," Michael retorted, "Though I'm not the only one behind this."

"Hey Mario," the green-clad plumber, Luigi, shouted up to his brother, "Can you tell us what's a-going on here?" "Sorry, Weegie," Mario said back to his brother, "But this "gentleman"-wolf is the one who's got the answers." "Exactly, Mario my man," Michael said approvingly to the plumber by his side, after which he looked at the others in the pit, "And don't you worry about your new whereabouts. We do not mean you any more harm than you do us." "Really?" the fungus-like man said in relief, "Phew. I seriously thought we were in some really though bad guy's lair or something right now. This place looks so much like a tech-fortress or something." "You are not too far from the truth, Toad," Michael said to the mushroom retainer, making the short fungi quip at the wolf's knowledge of his name, "This place **is** a tech-fortress in a sense, though not the bad guy-kind of fortress."

"Excuse me, sir," the blue vixen asked Michael, "I do not mean to be rude, but where are we, and who are you? And also, if you know, what has happened to Fox?" "Well, my dear Miss Krystal," Michael said with a strangely honored expression followed by a courteous bow to her after saying her name, "My name is Michael, and you are now on Earth, third planet from the sun in our planetary system, which we call the Solar system, which is part of the Milky Way Galaxy. More approximately, you are in the portal-room of the Royalhart Secret Research Facility south of New Preda City, southern Calisota, U.S.A."

"As for your mate," here Michael turned to see Fox McCloud right behind him, wearing a little blush when the half-fox said "mate", "He's right here," at which Michael sidestepped to the left, letting the ones in the pit see Fox.

"Fox!" Krystal said in relief, "you're okay." "Like always, Krys," Fox said to the love of his life. "No worries, milady," Michael told the blue fox-woman, "Your boyfriend have not been harmed in any way. Oh, and that goes for your ringtailed partner, too, Carmelita," he added to the Spanish fox-lady. "He better not be," she said with a frown, "Or Dios help me, I'm gonna make a number on you and your lackeys' faces."

"If I were you, Miss Fox," Ben said, coming up on Michael's left side, "I would not threaten the ones who made this situation possible in the first place, lest be the ones who could very well hold the key to your partner's past." "What!" the Spanish vixen yelped, "Are you telling me you are familiar with Sly, and intend to give him his memory back? Why you, you-" "Hold it right there, Miss Montoya!" Falisa said, stopping the vixen Inspector's imminent swearing at them, "Before you accuse us of anything, let your boyfriend add his two cents of info to this."

"I think it's your turn to shine, sport," Alexandra said to Sly, pushing him to the front row. "Hey," Sly whispered to the lioness, trying to back of, "I can't let her see me like this, she'll get all mad." "She will find out anyways soon enough, so let's just get it over with," Alex told the other-times suave raccoon.

As soon as Sly was on the edge of the platform over-looking the pit, Carmelita went silent in a heartbeat, looking at the thief with an expression that mixed complete shock, anger, fear, and disbelief. "Cooper..." she said with a shaking voice.

Just as she was about to inch her shock pistol towards Sly, a light flashed, so sudden and bright, the people in the room became blind for ten seconds. When they finally got their sight back, they saw Carmelita lying unconscious on the floor.

Michael and Falisa looked at Kalasta with irritated frowns, thinking he was behind this unwarned spell. "Don't look at me, younglings," the canine druid said to the young couple, still trying to regain **his** own eyesight, "This was **not** my spell." "The old man is right," they heard a female say, which they found was Krystal, "It was me."

"Whoa, so you **can** do some magic attacks without your staff," Michael said in awe at the vixen from a foreign system. "That is correct. But how do you know about my powers, or my staff for that matter?" Krystal asked, getting perplexed at the wolf-fox's knowledge. "That's for later explanations," Michael answered, before he said, "But listen. All of you down there, get together in the middle of the room," at this he pointed at the spot where the elevator rised up, "And we'll bring you up from there."

"How?" the monkey who sat on the rhino asked. "Just trust me, it'll work," Michael answered. As they were told, the ones in the pit assembled in the middle (with Krystal and Luigi lifting Carmelita there), and no sooner were they there, Albert pushed the elevator button on his control pad, and twenty seconds later, the new patch of "guests" were among their hosts and familiars.

* * *

As soon as Krystal was on the floor, she ran to Fox and gave him a tight hug. "Oh, Fox, you had me so worried," she said to the mercenary leader, "When R.O.B. discovered that you had suddenly disappeared from the Great Fox, we thought something bad had happened to you." "Well, I'm sorry for making you worry," Fox said to his love. "Actually," Michael entered the couple's conversation, "It's I that should be giving you an apology for this unexpected event."

"Well," Krystal said, turning to the young mutt, "I accept your apology. But I am curious to why we are here, and I'm not leaving this place before it is okay for Fox to do." "Understandable," Michael said to the blue vixen, "Though we were just on our way to summon you and your friends here too, anyway. We are in need of someone with skills surpassing most other people of our planet, and you of the Star Fox team are among those people we'll need for this."

"Now you've piqued my interest, sir," Krystal said to the half-wolf, "Please, tell me what you want us for." "In time, my beautiful lady," Michael told her, "You'll have to wait till we have summoned the others we are in need of." "You'll just have to hold your questions for now, Krys," Fox told his love, "I'm still waiting for _my_ answers." "I'll try," Krystal said, giving Michael a look of beginning trust.

* * *

While the three (or rather, two-and-one-half) vulpines talked with each other, the chimp who rode on top of the rhinoceros jumped of his steed, running straight for Donkey Kong. "DK! You're okay!" he said to the gorilla. "Diddy!" the big ape said in joy, "Am I glad to see you, little buddy!" "Where are we now, DK?" the smaller simian asked his big friend, "Rambi just ran into this odd mist-thingy that floated right in the middle of the jungle, and Bam! Suddenly, we were down in this pit with Luigi, Toad, Yoshi and those fox girls."

"Well," Donkey Kong said to his friend, "I think we are someplace in the "Real World", but I'm not quite sure if that's right." "How come?" Diddy asked. "Well, I've only seen animal people here," DK answered, "So I'm not sure if it **is** really Earth or not." "You're not wrong, Mister Kong," Abigail, the raccoon girl told the gorilla, "We are on Earth, only not the same Earth your father or Mister Mario are from."

"Huh?" DK said in confusion. "What do you mean?" Diddy asked the ringtailed female, ""Not the _same_ Earth?" What's that supposed to mean?" "To be blunt, I don't know that much about the issue either," Abigail told the two monkeys, "But as soon as we've brought the other ones needed, Michael has said that he will explain it for us all."

"Alright then, but who is Michael?" Diddy asked, curious about who could be the mastermind behind this strange gathering they had become part of. "Oh, he's right over there," Abigail said, pointing to Michael who now was on his way to Mario and his brother, "He's the wolf with the black fox' ears and yellow shirt with the zigzag-patterns on his shirt-arms."

"Huh. He must have a very good reason for warping us from our place like that," Diddy said at the sight of the wolf-fox. "He does, though we all will have to wait until everyone needed are assembled here," Abigail said, before she saw Rambi who scratched on the floor with his front-left hoof.

"Say, cute rhino you've got there," she said to the chimp. "Who, Rambi?" Diddy said taken a bit off-guard by the change of topic, "Well, he's not really ours. He just likes to hang out with us and help us when there's trouble. But no one's ever thought of him as cute. Sure, he's friendly, if a bit short-tempered and running-crazed, but he's never been called _cute_, even by my girlfriend Dixie, and she loves all kinds of animals, even our spider buddy Squitter!"

"Well, I think he's cute," Abigail said with a look that pretty much affirmated her statement, "Do you think he'll mind if I touch him?" "Well, he's not used to strangers, so I wouldn't-" Diddy said, before he saw the raccoon-girl go up and pat Rambi on his back. To the chimp's disbelief, the rhino didn't start when Abigail moved her hand over his features. Instead, the horned beast got a pleased look on his face, closing his eyes as the female ringtail sat up on him and started to give him a massage.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," both Diddy and Donkey said in complete shock. "Rambi usually throws of anyone who he haven't met before," Donkey Kong said, awed by the girl's daring, "Let alone does let someone new just sit on top of him like that." "Well, I just have a ways with animals like that normally," Abigail said proudly.

* * *

As Abigail continued to converse with Diddy and DK while making Rambi comfortable, Luigi stood in front of Mario and Michael with a look of nervous curiosity, Yoshi and Toad at his sides. "Alright, Mario," he finally blurted out, "What's a-going on? I have a feeling we're not in the Mushroom Kingdom anymore." "Yeah," Toad said approvingly, his voice a bit scared-sounding too "I, for one, feel like we're someplace on your homeworld right now, Mario. Uh, right?"

"I think so too," Mario said, before looking at Michael, "Although, with a-how the people here are talking animals instead of humans, I think it's a sort of parallel world or something like a-that. Is that correct, Michael?" "You couldn't be righter, my good plumbing-specialist," the young mutt said, "But let us wait with the details 'till we've got everyone we need here. I don't want to tell you guys one at a time, that'll be to exhausting."

"That's okay with a-me. How about you guys?" Mario said to his brother and friends. "Okie-Dokie," was Luigi's response. "I'll be as patient as a Koopa," Toad said for his part. "Yo!" Yoshi simply said, giving a nod showing that he understood.

"Okay then," Michael said, "Let's bring the remaining cast to our place. Are the portals working still?" "All portals are in top condition, sir," one of the duck-assistants from earlier said approvingly from the control room, "We only wait for further instructions." "Good," Michael said, before he looked at the group, "Now, I only have to make sure the portals lead to your comrades, and not to some random place where any bad guys or innocent strangers could fall into them. So I have to ask you guys where you last were before you got warped here. Alright?"

Every one of the heroes nodded their heads at that. "Right then," the wolf-fox said, "Let us start. Mario, where were you before you got here?" "Well," the plumber said, "I was on a stroll down the path to Goomba Village, just to get a little exercise and see how my friend Goombario was." "Ah, Goomba Road," Michael said, "Then I guess you found the portal there too?" at which he looked at Luigi and the others with him. "Yep," Luigi said, "It was floating right besides the billboard in front of the village gate." "Alright. Douglas!" Michael said to the taller duck-assistant, "Put the portal in front of Mushroom Castle, Toad town, if you could, please." "Roger, sir!" the mallard shouted back in response.

"Donkey Kong, Diddy," Michael addressed the monkeys, "Where did you get sucked in?" "I think it was close to the banana plantation on the plateau," Diddy said. "Yeah," DK continued for his buddy, "I was on my way there for a snack after I had trained a little with Chunky Kong. He _is_ very cowardly, but boy, does he know to give you a fight for the money when he gets right to it!" "Okay," Michael said, "Then let's put your portal somewhere close to your treehouse, then." "On the way," Douglas said approvingly.

"Link, my friend," Michael said to the long-eared swordsman, "Where did we pick you up from with our teleportation-device?" "You dragged me right from my bed in Hyrule Castle, you sneaks," Link said with a grin, his response making the bipedal lupine take a double-take. "Say what! So you mean to tell me you are under employment of the royal family of Hyrule now?" "Uh, yeah," Link said a bit surprised at the part Wolfos-man, "I became Princess Zelda's personal guard some years after my adventures in Termina. But how come you do not know about that when you know the rest of my life so well?" "Uh, you'll know in a short while," Michael said with a low voice, his ears lowered in a way that told you he was a little ashamed of telling the Hylian where his source of info came from. "Just let the portal to Hyrule stay in its current position, Doug," the half-fox said to the duck in the control room. "Okay, sir," Douglas said back.

"Now then," Michael turned to Fox and Krystal, "Where on your ship, the Great Fox, did the portal appear?" "You made it suck me from my room, too," McCloud said, looking over to the elf-man in a way to say 'I know how you feel'. "Yes," Krystal said, "R.O.B. said you suddenly disappeared from the sensors inside your room, and he found no trace of you inside or in close range of the ship. He also said that in your stead, an abnormal phenomenon had appeared in your room, so I started looking there first."

"Douglas!" Michael said, "Put our Lylat-bound portal in the control center of the Great Fox!" "Roger!" they heard the flat-footed bird say back.

"Ash, you're next," Michael said to the teen. "Well, three's the charm, they say," Ash said with a grin, "You warped me right from **my** bed, too." "Well, top that," Michael said with a smug face, "But your bed _where_?" "In my mom's house of course," the young trainer answered, "I am currently taking a break from my travels, after my mother and Misty begged me to take some time of. And Pikachu and the others were very much for a proper break, too." "I can see it for me," Michael said before he looked to the control room again, "Doug, let it stay in position. I have a hunch it will serve its purpose well enough there." The duck just nodded in approval.

"Rayman," the wild-species mutt-man said to the limbless guy, "Your position before appearing here?" "Well, I was looking for something to eat close to Ly's preferred meditation spot in the Fairy Glade when you dragged me away," Rayman told the canine. "Douglas-" "I know, sir, let it stay where it is," they heard the mallard say, making the others present giggle at Michael who were **just** about to say that. "Uh, let's just move on," the part-vulpine said a bit miffed.

"At last, Sly, you're next," Michael said to the raccoon thief, "Though let me guess first, we sucked you too from your room in yours' and Carmelitas' apartment?" "You're spot-on, you cheeky track-dog," Sly said with a grin to the wolf-fox, "But if you intend to bring my gang here, you'll have to tell your lab-folks to look elsewhere." "Of course, you bandit," Michael told the ringtailed man, "But don't worry, we have the position of Bentley and Penelope's hideout, too." "I'd thought no less of you guys, but what about Murray? He's not living with them," Sly said in a worried tone.

"No worries," Falisa piped into the interrogation, "We have found out that your big hippo-friend is on a break from his racing-career in Florida, and that he's somewhere in Paris right now. Now where do you think he would stay for that occasion?" she said with a suggestive grin to the master thief. Sly just laughed at the incredible amount of coincidence there was to this sudden reunion. "Or is it just that?" he wondered to himself.

"Now then, Douglas," Alexandra said to the duck in Michaels' stead, "Put the Cooper portal in the prerecorded coordinates. And don't _"I know already"_ **me**," she added lastly in memory of how the duck had stopped Michael midsentence. "R-right away, Miss Royalhart," Douglas said a bit shakingly, the flat-billed water-bird not daring to make a joke at the expense of his **boss'** daughter.

* * *

After the coordinates of all the portals had been put in _and_ checked twice by Albert, Michael stood on the platform's edge again, this time with Falisa and Alexandra by his sides. "Well, girls," he said to his female friends, "Do your stuff." "Right away, sweetie," Falisa answered her beau. "On the double, Mister "Hero"," Alexandra said with a smart grin.

"What are they going to do?" Rayman asked curiously. "Don't tell me they are gonna summon the others?" Link said a bit mystified by the revelation. "Well, of course they are," Michael said, having backed off from the feline women, "I may have forgotten to mention to you before, but Kalasta isn't the only one of my friends who can cast magic."

"Huh-What! You mean to tell me your girlfriends are witches?" Ash said flabbergasted at the news. "In a way," Ben answered in Michaels' stead, "They are still in training, though, seeing as they started some four-five years ago when Kalasta first came to live with us. But that's a story for another time, okay?" "Okay," the human teen responded, getting more puzzled at the strange furry group by the minute. "So, how are they gonna get our friends to go through the portals? Give them a magic call or something?" he asked the glassed fox. "Something like that, yeah," Ben nodded approvingly.

On the platform, Falisa and Alexandra were concentrating on the portals, their eyes closed while magic power floated like blue, green and yellow swirls around them, interlocking in a beautiful light-show around the two young cat-women. When they finally opened their eyes, they were glowing like they had become spirits or something similar, their eyes shining white with energy. As they where making their calling-spell, the lights in the room went of as a side-effect of the magic, the two girls being the sole source of light in the room.

"Alright, we've dazzled them enough, I think," Alexandra said to her fellow magician and dear friend. "Awww! And I wanted to give Michael a real blinding sight," Falisa said in her fun-loving way. "If we keep this up, that old fudge Kalasta's bound to nag at us to get going, you know," Alexandra said to the leopard-lynx-girl. "Alright, you party-pooper," Falisa said with a playful pout, "Let's get to sending _postcards_!"

At the "postcard"-part, the witches-in-training released their finished spell, the magic around them flying high up in the room before it went cascading down into the pit, and divided into the seven doorways and into the portals inside.

As the last part of the spell disappeared, the lights came back on, and the others didn't have to squint their eyes any longer, so intense had the magic light-show been. "Wow," Donkey Kong said in awe at the incredible event that had taken place, "And that was just their _message-magic_?" "Yep," Michael said, "You guys haven't seen the best of their stuff yet." This made all the heroes gulp at the thought of the two young sorceresses' powers. "They are really something **else** than Kamek and his men," Mario said with truth in every word.

"Now we'll just have to wait for the _response_," Michael said, making the others look at the doorways in suspense.

* * *

Author's Notes: _Aaaaannnd we're getting the first round of supporting hero-cast into the mix. Jay!_

_I'm sorry if this is a bit jumbled, but again, it gets a bit hard to follow__with a large cast like this, and we are still with mostly the main heroes!_

_Just to warn you, I __**am **__going to get Sly to explain to Carmelita his reasons for faking amnesia in the first place and their talk about it, no matter how many times it have been done here on FanFic. Net already. It's integral to the story, what with Carm coming along for the ride._

_And I'm going to type in backstories for some of the other guys too, like how Link came to be taken in as Zelda's personal guardian, Fox and his friends explain what really happened in and after the Anglar Invasion from the much disputed game Star Fox Command, and so on. (Yes, for this story, I'm gonna have Command being in the canon storyline.) Get ready for some mixing twists along the way._

_Michael, Out!_


	7. Ch 6: Strange reunions, part 2

A strange reunion- part Two

Some five minutes after the calling spell had flown into the portal doors, Michael suddenly got an idea. "Hey, here's a thought: Why don't you guys go into the pit and welcome your buddies?" "And why should we do that?" Link asked, wondering where the wolf was going with this. "Simple: If your friends see you first when they come out, there'll be a better chance they won't try to hurt each other when they see each other, like Carmelita just tried in **her** confusion," Michael answered.

"He's got a good point there, Link," Mario said. "And if my remembrance is right," Michael continued, "Neither Falco or Murray is afraid to pick a fight with someone who doesn't look ordinary by their standards."

"That man really knows our friends well," Fox said with wondering in his voice, with Sly ending the sentence with a slightly nervous chuckle, "Yeah, and he haven't even **met** them yet!"

Some thirty seconds later, the heroes had been elevated into the pit, and **just** as soon as they stood in front of their respective home-world entrances, several people came through the portals.

* * *

From the Hyrule-bound portal, a young woman walked in. She was clothed in a dress and jewelry fit for a princess, which is what she was, of course.

"Princess Zelda!" Link said in joy. "Link!" the Hylian heir shouted in shock, shortly before the green-clad knight was in front of her and kneeled down in honor. "It's so great to see you, my dear friend," Zelda said, her royal upbringing showing in her manner of speech, even in a brand new place. She wasn't slow to continue, either, "I heard a most unusual voice that told me to follow it to your room. When I came there, I saw this strange magical portal floating besides your bed, and the voice told me to go into it. And the next thing I know, I am here.

"Please tell me, where are we?" "Oh, you will not believe it, my Princess," Link told his future queen, "But we are on an entirely different world, one that seems to be inhabited by talking animals, no less." "Just animals?" Zelda asked perplexed, shortly after she caught sight of Ash and Mario standing by their portals, "Then how come there are humans here, as well?" "Oh, them," Link said, looking at his new friends who his princess looked at, "They are from other worlds too, like us."

"I see," the long-eared princess responded, "But, what are you doing here? And how come this portal showed up in your room? And most important of all," she asked with a most girly pout, "Why didn't you wait until I was with you?" "Hey, excuse me, Princess!" Link said back a bit taken of guard, "Those guys who took us here wanted to see me first. They apparently need the heroes of these respective worlds first. And don't forget," he added a bit childishly, "I'm the Hero of Time, Remember?" "That is not fair," Zelda retorted, folding her arms a bit angrily, "I'm the Princess of Hyrule! If it weren't for me, you wouldn't have been who you are today in the first place! It was me who sent you on your journey for the Stones, the one who gave you the Ocarina of Time, the one who taught you the melodies needed to enter the temples, the one who-"

"Alright, alright, alright!" Link stopped her, feeling a bit ashamed for snapping at her in the first place, "I didn't mean it like that, okay? It's just, they wanted to meet me first, so they transported me here _first_, and then they were going to get you here." When Zelda still didn't look convinced, Link lowered his head and spoke to her, "I mean it. If I knew this was gonna happen, I would have told you at once, I swear, Knight's promise!"

"Alright, you overgrown mantis," Zelda said with a small smile of regret herself, "I believe you. You do not have to give me such a noble apology for something I started anyways. That wasn't very Princess-like of me." "It's okay, my Princess," Link said with a look of admiration for his young ruler-in -training, "The important thing is, I am alright, and we are together, just like before." "Yes, that is nice," Zelda said, her fondness for her guardian showing in her eyes. "And who knows," Link continued, "If this is kind of like what happened in our _first_ adventure as grown-ups in the _other_ timeline, perhaps we will get on a new adventure here."

"Oh no!" the Hylian heir said in sad shock, "Don't say that. I do not want to be parted from you again!" "Relax, Zelda," Link said, taking hold of her shoulders to calm her down, "I did not say this is going to be **Just** like the other time. Something tells me this is some kind of event that calls for great heroes **and** their closest friends and allies, meaning you are coming too." "Oh, well that sounds better," the beautiful royal lady said more happily, before she stopped herself, "But, what about my duties in the castle? And who is going to tell my father, the King?"

"Who is going to tell your father what, Princess?" an older females voice could be heard from the portal, just before a tall woman with white hair, long ears, red eyes and a dark-blue, skin-tight, sleeveless combat outfit entered through the swirling mass of energy.

"Impa!" both Zelda and Link said in shock, just before a small ball of light with wings sprouting out from its back appeared from behind the tall female monk. "Hey, you two lovebirds!" the floating light said at the two, "So this is where you two were hiding." "Navi!" Link said embarrassed, "Show some respect for her highness. And we're not _lovebirds!_" "Whatever," the small fairy said with an unseeable grin before she asked him, "But where in Hyrule are we now, anyways?" "Yes, my dear Lord Link," the tall woman called Impa asked as well, "Where are we now? This strange place could be hazardous for her highness, what with these ruffians standing around here," she said when she saw the others in the pit.

"It's a long story," Link said, and started to tell his friends what he knew about the situation.

* * *

Donkey Kong and Mario, on the other hand, were greeting Peach, the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom, who were followed by her steward Toadsworth and the young pink-capped and -haired mushroom girl Toadette, as well as the chimp-girl Dixie, DK's old father Cranky and the gorgeous blonde gorilla woman Candy, with the princess and her shroom-subjects coming from the Mushroom Kingdom portal, and the monkey-people coming from the DK Island-bound one. Also, a green parrot followed after the apes as well.

"Mario! So this is where you are," Peach said in joy, happy to see her dear rescuer again. "And you too, DK," Candy said with glee at seeing her favorite jungle-swinger too. "Peach!" "Candy!" "You're finally here!" both the plumber and gorilla said in near unison, after which Mario took hold of Peach and started to swing her around in a joyous dance, while Donkey gave his girlfriend a tender monkey-hug which left Candy poor on her breath. "Arch! DK's here! DK's here!" the parrot sang while flying over everyones heads.

"Master Mario, what is going on?" the elderly Toadsworth asked his kingdoms' defender #1 after the plumber stopped his waltz, "This strange voice called her majesty into the courtyard and told her to go through this odd-coloured swirling mist that had appeared out of nowhere. I could not let her Highness go into possible danger all alone, so I followed her."

"Yeah, same story with Candy," the hunched ape Cranky said with his raspy vocals, "Only we don't have a courtyard in our village, and she told me to follow her, even thought I didn't want to really." "We snuck with them too," both Dixie and Toadette said too, the two small girls looking at each other with big grins, and the parrot _parroting_ after them, "Snuck with them too! Snuck with them too! Arch!"

"Well," Mario said to his and DK's friends, "Our _"Abductor"_ will be better to tell you what's going on than us two." "Yep," Donkey said approvingly, "You'll just have to wait a little bit. Our new friends wait for their buddies to arrive too." "Well, I hope they'll hurry up," Cranky said in his trademark cranky way, "I'll need to go to the bathroom soon. A gallon of Pineapple Surprise doesn't wait long in my bladder."

"Watch your tongue, elderly primate sir!" Toadsworth said with a repulsed frown, "We don't speak about such delicate private matters in the presence of ladies, and especially NOT in front of the Princess!" "Ah, shut your trap, you overgrown footstool," the old monkey retorted grumpily, "I speak my mind wherever I am!" "Yeah, and that's where you've got your name from," Donkey Kong spoke up in his usual monkey manner, shortly before he got a swift whack to his head from Cranky's walking stick. "I heard that," the senior Kong said to his offspring. "I heard that! I heard that! Arch!" the parrot cried vigorously on DK's shoulder. "Squawks, shut it!" Donkey said to his little animal buddy, grabbing his beak. "Bwarch! Alright, alright," Squawks the parrot retorted muffled before his gorilla boss released his grip, stroking his beak with his left talon, "You only had to say so."

"Hey, Peach," Candy suddenly said, "It seems like there's another princess here too." "Where? Is it Daisy?" Peach asked excited. "No," the slim gorilla-woman responded before she pointed at Zelda, "I think she is someone from a far-off land or something, what with how her dress looks compared to yours." "Well, actually," Mario said when he looked in the direction of the portal to Hyrule and the persons standing in front of it, "I think that would-a happen to be the princess of the land of Hyrule, a kingdom that's-a set in some different time and world than ours."

"Good Heavens!" the short Toadsworth whooped when he heard about and saw the Hylian heiress, "A princess from a different time and world than us? My lords! Uh, Master Mario, would you be so kind to introduce us to this lady of the unknown lands?" "Well, I could a-try," Mario said a bit unprepared for this, "But don't a-get your hopes too high, Toadsworth. I haven't met her yet me-self, she arrived just at the same moment as you." "Well, all the better a time to make a good impression," the elderly mushroom man said with bravado, "And as I always say, "Make acquaintances today, and we can make both kingdoms prosper tomorrow", eh, what, what?"

"Toadsworth," Peach said with a giggling whisper and a tired expression, "You're a hopeless ambassador through and through."

* * *

Meanwhile Toadsworth were on his way to meet Zelda with Mario, DK and the others in tow, Sly watched as Fox came face to face with his old friends and team-members again.

"Fox!" the short, green frog Slippy and the tall, blue falcon aptly named Falco shouted when they saw their old pal and commander. "We've been looking all over the ship after you," Slippy said hugging his furred leader, "We got so scared for you." "Puh! Much to get scared for," Falco said with his usual tough-and-bored manner of language, "You just disappeared, and Krystal turned all soaky-eyed, all the while you're just in some fancy teleporting-station, drinking soda and eating caviar without inviting us to the party." "That's not what I've been doing, Falco," Fox said, annoyed as always by his un-serious right-wing man, but still happy to see him too.

Shortly after them, a pink frog woman, a black-furred cat-girl, and a gold-colored humanoid robot followed suit. "Captain Fox McCloud, found and identified," the advanced machine said out plainly in its metallic voice. "Well, duh, you trashcan," the female feline smartly retorted, "We can see it's old Foxie without you telling us." "Sorry, Miss Monroe," the robot answered her, "I am programmed to talk this way. It's all in the hardware." "Whatever," the black cat-woman said tired.

"Katt, would you be so kind?" the frog-woman said to her feline team-member, "We have arrived in some new fantastic place, and all you can do is insult poor R.O.B.?" "Don't mind her, Amanda," Falco said matter-of-factly, "Katt wouldn't get interested about anything new if it can't be used to kill some rich pirates with."

"Don't even think about starting, you two," Fox said when Katt were about to bark back on Falco, the fox-man having gotten used to the cat-and-bird-couple bicker about the most stupid things, but not liking it anymore than the others. "Humph. Whatever you say, Foxie," the bird-man said with a pouty beak. "Same here, McCloud," Katt replied in her own right.

"Now, Mister McCloud," the female amphibian Amanda said to her husbands' old friend, "Where are we right now?" "Well, according to our host," Fox said to his team, "We are on a planet called Earth, someplace in the spiral galaxy they call the Milky Way." "Earth? Really?" Slippy said interested, "The planet whose people have been sending those funny old-fashioned radio-signals for years?"

"What, you know about them?" Fox asked his froggy friend with wonder. "Of course," the Star Fox team mechanic said proudly, "I've always been interested with Earth ever since I first read about it in an old science-magazine back at the academy. But I'd never thought we would be the first to make contact with this old civilization!"

"Watch your tongue, _frog_," Sly said with a smart remark, "Otherwise the people of this _old civilization_ will be happy to invite you for dinner, _with your legs as the main course!"_ Slippy got so scared by the raccoon thief's sudden presence and his threatening speech, he jumped right into Amandas arms, making the poor woman fall flat on her back with her beau's added weight.

"Hey, easy on him, Sly," Fox said, worried about his friend, "He didn't mean it that way. We Lylatians just have this old stereotype about our galaxy being one of the most advanced in the Universe." "I can imagine that, alright," the raccoon said with mirth before he continued, "I just didn't think he'd be so easily frightened by such a poor joke."

"Hey Fox, who is this masked clown?" Falco asked, still trying to stop laughing after Slippys stunt. "This "_clown_", Falco Lombardi," McCloud said with a glint in his eye, "Is my new friend-" "SLY!" a loud shout interrupted him, just before a big light-purple hippo with a blue shirt and a white scarf rushed out from the Cooper-portal and gave the raccoon a crushing bear-hug.

"Oh, Sly, it's so great to see you again!" the hippo almost cried in happiness. "The feeling is mu-ugh!-tual, Murray," Sly said breathlessly. "Hey, you big lunk," Falco said at the large jungle-mammal, "Let that man breathe. I was about to get introduced with him." "Oh, ops! Sorry, mister," Murray said blushing, releasing his grip from his old gang boss, "Heh, excuse me, Sly." "Nothing to it, Murray," Sly said while popping his right shoulder back into shape, "I've not trained more than half my life to be a master thief for nothing."

"Woo, Foxie," Falco said with new-struck interest, "I didn't think you'd be the type to acquaint yourself with criminals." "Why are you surprised?" Fox retorted smiling, "I've been working for years with an **old raven** on my team who does as he pleases." "I couldn't have said it better myself, McCloud," Katt said with a grin. Falco just gave her and Fox a pretend cold-stare.

"Sly?" a nasally voice could be heard from the right portal entrance behind the others, "Is that you?" "Bentley! You came?" Sly said with happy surprise in his voice. Making his way past the Star Fox team, who turned in the direction the raccoon went curious to who he were going to meet, Sly saw a man he'd never thought he would ever see again.

There, in front of the portal that had led him to this building, a turtle-man in his late-twenties sat in his customized wheelchair, his legs still hanging limp, but his thick glasses and white-spotted red bowtie still the same, a little gasp plastered on his green-scaled face. Right to his left stood a short mouse-girl, her round glasses, orange sweater, old overalls and cute surprised smile only confirming for the master thief that the young, former disguised mistress of the mid-European air-zones were also in his presence.

"Bentley! Penelope!" Sly cried in joy, running up and giving his old teams' brain and RC-expert a hug each. "Oh, it's been too long since we last saw each other," the raccoon said with tears in his eyes. "Oh, Sly," Penelope said with a little wetness in her own pupils, "It's so great to se you too." "I couldn't said it more truthfully myself, sweetie," the glassed turtle said smiling to his special one, shortly before he looked at his childhood friend again, a more serious look on his face now, "So tell me, Sly, what have you got yourself caught up in this time?"

"Would you believe," the raccoon started, "We are inside the Multi-Billionaire Julius Royalhart's secret building, the talk of the streets' biggest topic that everybody has wondered for the past four years what's inside." "What!" Bentley yelped, suddenly shivering all over, "Are you saying we are in _THE_ Julius Royalhart's secret building, with staff and guards on the job right NOW?" "Indeed, Mr. Wiseturtle," a voice unfamiliar to the turtle said, "I persuaded old Julius into building this place for a special, ah, _event_. He and I have some _veerryyy_ good use of you, _Cooper Gang_."

"Ach-ah! Who's talking, Sly?" the poor turtle said, nervous like a chicken in a fox-den. "Oh, he," Sly said, catching a wink from Michael who was on his way down with a rope behind Fox and his team, a smile plastered on the wolf-fox' muzzle, and now one on the raccoon's, "That is the person who dragged me and those other poor chaps around you out from our beds, almost got one of us killed with a living stone-lion, and served us food that could have very well been cooked by Mz. Ruby's second cousin." This only doubled the poor crippled reptile's fear, making him shout, "OH, WHO IS HE, ALREADY?"

"Me," the voice whispered from behind him, making the turtle scream as he got turned around by unknown black paws. "AHH! GET YOUR HANDS OF ME, YOU BIG, UGLY, NASTY Son of a biiiittt..." Bentley started, but slowed down and stopped when he saw the friendly face of a young wolf-man smiling at him, "..."

"Son of a lousy, fleabitten, scrawny old bitch?" Michael ended for the turtle who had apparently lost his voice. "Pretty much what he was about to say, I guess," the spectacled Penelope by Bentley's side answered with a giggle for her boyfriend, with Sly, Murray, the Star Fox team and Michael's friends and guests on the platform and in the pit guffawing like mad at the half-wolf's practical joke.

"I must say, kiddo, you are not half bad," Falco said after the laughter had died down, "With a wit like that, you could even trick old fancy-claws O'Donnell." "Oh, I wouldn't exaggerate that much about my own skill, my kind Falco," Michael said smiling to the birdman, "Then again, your boss' old nemesis Wolf O'Donnell wouldn't know a joke from a death note, either." "Hah! I like him," Falco said to Fox, "Tell me, uh, I mean, tell us, who is he?"

""_He"_, your flightfulness," Michael answered in the space mercenary leader's stead, "Would happen to be Michael, the person who needs all of you, and the others behind and above you," here he pointed at the others in the pit and up on the platform, "To do what you've done before: save the world."

"Nothing else?" the birdman said with a fake yawn, "Then you would only needed to contact me. Saving the world is what I do for a living." "Yeah," Michael continued for him, adding in, "With Fox and Katt watching your tailfeathers when you go into cocky-mode and let enemy fighters on your back." At this, Falco got a face that had the words "_WTH?"_ written all over.

"Anyway," Michael continued from where Falco interrupted, "I have summoned you to me and my friends' home to tell you of something that could very well mean your worlds' survival or destruction. And that is no joke."

"Gee," Murray said with a nervous chuckle, "It must be something serious if you need Sly and us to help you with this." "Trust me, Hippo," the young mutt said with a grave expression, "This is more serious than any other adventure or heist you and your friends have ever attempted."

"Then what is all this about then, mister?" Bentley asked, his voice back, "And what do you have to do with all this in the first place? You look a bit young to have something to do with the world's safety." "Said the turtle who, at the age of twenty, helped stop a crazed diminutive parrot and a lousy tigress from taking over the world with a former millennium-old android owl," Michael smartly responded.

"...Okay, you've convinced me," Bentley said a bit speechless'd from the wolf's remark, "But how do you know about the Clockwerk affair? I thought Interpol had that all covered up." "Believe me, Bentley," Sly said to his childhood friend, "This guy is just as much a mystery to me as he is to you."

"Don't worry to much," Michael told his guests, "Everything is going to be explained in just a few hours." "Well, I hope you've got a good explanation for whatever you've got planned, you freak!" a new voice was heard, this one belonging to a girl, "I really don't like to not know where the blazing Slugma's I am."

"Ah, Misty Waterflower, I presume," Michael said when he recognized the voice, making a gesture to his anthropomorphic friends to step aside. After they did, they could see a redhaired young human girl with a tense look on her face, nervously looking at these strange beings in front of her.

"So Ash," Michael said to the male teen who was standing ten feet away, "Haven't you told her about me yet?" "She wouldn't listen to half my explanation," Ash said with a hopeless shrug, "And she just rushed up to you when I pointed in your direction."

"Enough about this nonsense," the redhead called Misty said, "You let Ash and me go, or you're gonna face the wrath of my Pokémon." "Really now, Miss Misty," the half-wolf said a bit taken aback by the girl's fighting spirit, "I do not mean you or your boyfriend any har-" "He's NOT my Boyfriend, you mutated dog-thing!" the girl shouted, a red-and-white capsule suddenly in her hand.

Just as he was about to throw it, a small yellow mammal with red cheeks and a lightningbolt-shaped tail ran in front of the two-legged canine, shouting something to the girl that sounded like, "Pika-ka-Pi, Pi-Pi-Pi! Pikachu chu-Pi-Pi!" This stopped the teenage girl in her tracks, but it didn't stop her from talking back at the strange mouse-creature, "What do you mean, "listen to him," Pikachu? He's the freak who took Ash to this place and lured us here too! I'm not going to listen to something that could very well be a Pokémon-monster!"

"Seriously, Misty!" another female voice was heard now, only this one came from an older woman with brown hair who stood right besides Ash, "That _"Pokémon-monster"_ talks to you like you were royalty or the like, and you threaten him in return? Shame on you."

"B-but, but Miss Ketchum," Misty said taken aback a bit to the human woman, "Can't you see he isn't a human being? He got fur, a head and a tail like a beast, and he-" "And he didn't do anything to threat you in the first place, Misty," the woman said back, giving Michael an apologetic look, "You have to excuse Misty. She sounds all brash and such, but deep below, she is just a fragile little girl who doesn't want to seem weak." "I'm not!" Misty said, stomping her left foot indignantly.

"See what I mean?" the older woman said to illustrate her point. "Uh, Mom," Ash said to the brown-haired female, "I think you better quit before Misty blows something." "Alright, dearest," his mother said to her only son, "And perhaps now you could introduce us to this dog-like man who brought us here, who you told us about." "Right away, mom," Ash said, at which he told Misty to listen as well, with his Poké-pal Pikachu now nestled on his shoulder.

"Mom, Misty, Pikachu," the young trainer began, "This is Michael. He has got some exceptionally big kind of task that he needs us to help him with. And Michael, this is Misty, my first friend I made as a trainer, Pikachu, my first Pokémon, and my mother, Delia Ketchum." "Nice to meet all of you," Michael said with a smile, shaking paws first with Pikachu, then Misty (she was rather reluctant about touching his clawed hand) and finally, Delia, who got a most surprised look when the upstanding canine leaned down and kissed her hand. "It's an honor to be in the presence of a lady who brought up such a brave young man and great trainer like your son," Michael said to her. "I-I-I'm flattered, I guess," Miss Ketchum said a bit flustered by the kiss.

"Now when we are introduced, aren't you going to tell us what's going on?" Misty finally asked, still not trusting the canine one bit. "In a while, Misty," Michael said to the young Gym leader, "We only have to wait for the last guests to arrive." "Who's waiting for who, Fangface?" a new voice was heard from over Michael's head. When the group looked up, they saw a little green guy with a wide grin and dressed like a leprechaun, hovering over them thanks to two fly-like wings on his back.

"Well, isn't this a fun surprise?" Michael said at the frog-faced critter over him, "Murphy the Greenbottle, Rayman's private tutor, is in the house." "So, you've heard about me, eh?" the strange fellow said back, his grin even bigger, "Rayman must of told you everything I've did to help him destroy the Pirates and the other big, bad, fat bozo's, right!" "Actually, no," the lupine man retorted, "He haven't said anything about your big, grand adventures where you fled out of harms way while Rayman took care of the creeps. I knew about all that before we transported your limbless buddy here."

"Waitwaitwaitwait, whaaaat?" the odd-looking fairy-man said flabbergasted, his smile turned into a slackjawed gasp of disbelief, "Bu-bu-but, how did you know that I haven't, uh, eh..." "Haven't done anything but mostly blab the ears of people? That is, if they've got ears in the first place," Michael said with a grin of his own to the Greenbottle, before he said, "That's for later explanations. But now, if you would be so kind, I want to meet my other guests from your realm." At this, Michael walked away from the humans and animal people to where Rayman stood with his acquaintances, Murphy flying right behind him while Ash, Fox and Sly tried to introduce each others group with varying effects.

On Rayman's right stood a plump frog-guy with short feet and long arms, blue coloration and a white belly and hands. He looked a bit scared by all the technology around him and the several unknown people who were around, but also had a simple look of awe at the same stuff too. At Rayman's left, there stood a tall, slim girl with long purple hair, long ears and a long purple tail, who wore a tight suit the color of her slight-brown/orange skin with purple swirls imbedded into it, which made her look like she wasn't wearing anything at all.

"Ah, it is so good to finally meet your friends, Ray," Michael said smiling to the limbless man. "The pleasure is ours, o stranger," the girl said with a smile, putting out her hand to shake with the wolf. "Oh, you're to kind, Ly the Fairy," Michael responded, taking the offered hand and shook it before he kissed her hand too, "But I'm pleased to hear that coming from you." "Oh, you're too kind yourself, my handsome dog-being with the big ears," the fairy-girl said, with a slight blush caused by the wolf's gentlemanly behavior appearing on her cheeks, a bit to Rayman's jealousy.

"Now, then," Michael turned to the blue frog, "It's a pleasure for me to also meet you, Globox." "Uh, um, feelings returned back to you, Mister Sir, uh, I think," the big blue amphibian said a little shaking, trying to sound just as formal as the half-fox but failing miserably. When Michael gave Globox a hand-shake, the poor toad was still shaking his arm up and down twenty seconds after Michael let go. "Is he always this nervous around strangers?" Michael asked Rayman while Murphy tried to stop the not-so-smart Glute. "Yeah, but mostly around someone not from the Glade," Rayman told his new friend.

"Oh, Rayman, you and Mister Michael here have to tell us what we're doing here," Ly asked her big-nosed friend with curiosity shining in her big eyes. "Yes, Big-shot, please," Murphy said too, looking up to the platform where he saw Falisa and Abigail giggling at all the hustle down in the pit, "And while you're at it, could you introduce us to those cutie-pies up there too?" "Hey, keep your pants on, Toothy-grin," Michael said smartly to the flying green weird fellow, "One of them is MY girlfriend, buster, and the other one's occupied too."

"Well dang," the Greenbottle said with a frown, "All the cute ones are always taken." "Don't feel down, Murphy," Rayman said to him, "There's always the Lums." "Yeah, but if I play any scary jokes on them, they'll just turn into Black Lums," the funny fairy-man said with a huff, "Lums don't got a sense of humor."

"Well, it's neither here nor there," Michael said, before he looked around him, "But now you'll have to excuse me, I have others to get introduced with." And with that, he set of to finish his self-appointed task.

* * *

After everyone in the pit had been introduced with Michael and each other, and everyone had been transported up to the main floor of the room, they got to introduce with the rest of Michael's friends and guests. After this was done, and the portals where securely locked, Michael told the newcomers they were going to give them some time to recuperate inside the facility before he would give them his reason for summoning them. Most (if not, all) of the people from different realms were glad to get their bearings in this unknown place.

The only ones who were still a bit edgy were Impa and Toadsworth, thinking about their respective Princesses welfare, Carmelita, who had woke up some time ago and was not in any mood to talk to anyone, especially Sly, and Misty, who had still not get used to the talking animals around her. (Meowth was one thing, this was something else.)

When they heard that most of the facility was free for their use, many of the new guests went of to look around. Luigi, Yoshi, Diddy, Murray, Slippy, Murphy and others went straight for the mess hall to get a bite. Old Cranky was of course more interested in the nearest W.C., but he made a note to himself to meet Albert and check out his laboratory after his little toilet-trip. (The old gorilla was an old quack himself, remember?)

The rest of them, mostly the far-off heroes and their girlfriends, followed Michael and his friends who took them to a big room on the top of the building, which doubled as a part-greenhouse with exotic flowers, had panorama view of the Pacific Ocean, New Preda city and the desert, and lots of comfy sofas and refreshments for the picking .There they started conversing, getting to know each other a little better, and tell about their homeworlds as best they could.


	8. Ch 7: Duty of heart, part 1

Duty of Heart- part 1

As the conversation went on between the heroes of different realms, Krystal noticed something that somehow dampened the good mood for her: a lonely soul. And that soul was Sly.

The vixen hadn't been in this new world longer than some hours, but she had already learned the basic information about most of the other people around her. And one thing she noted right now was that Sly was the only one of the persons around her without his "special one".

It really saddened the Cerinian she-vulpine that this righteous thief wasn't with the love of his life right now, when all the other guys in the room were together with theirs. It just didn't sit right with her that that Latin vixen Carmelita wouldn't listen to Sly trying to explain himself while they had moved up to the top floor. She had only agreed to come with them at all when Michael had told her that this way, she would have the raccoon under full "personal surveillance" until he'd explained this whole inter-dimensional meeting.

Krystal swung her head to the left, catching sight of Carmelita standing outside on the balcony, looking quite down herself. Even from there, Krystal caught her thought patterns. She felt confusion, anger, sadness, and ...was that longing? The Spanish vixen was a turmoil of emotions, and she suffered internally of that.

The Cerinian vixen actually felt sympathetic to her. After all, she herself had felt those very emotions after Fox had dismembered her sometime before the Anglars made their move. Oh, how she had loathed Fox for it then. But then, after they had reunited in the war, he had told her why he did such a stupid thing, and both the heartfelt apology he had given her **and** the feelings of regret he had in his heart MONTHS after the war ended had been so much for her that just half of it had been enough to make up for it. _But then again, all that showed me just how much Fox cares for me,_ Krystal thought to herself before she looked at Sly again, _and after all the things I can see in Sly's head, he really cares for Carmelita too._

_I mean, giving up his __**family's legacy**__, his __**birthright fortune**__, and even his _**friends**_ just so he can be with her? Now __**that**__ is love. Now if only that stubborn raven-haired vixen could see for herself just what a nice person Sly really is,_ the blue-furred fox-girl thought with a sad look, finding it stupid that her telepathic powers only allowed her to read the thoughts of others and to talk to others in their mind, and not to link minds so she could make others share memories.

_Oh, if only my parents had tought me that before Cerinia was destroyed,_ Krystal thought, shedding some tears as she unintentionally reminisced about what happened to her home-planet. Fox saw her crying, and with a caring voice asked, "Hey, what is it, Krys?" "Oh," Krystal sobered, drying away her tears, "It's nothing." "You sure?" her boyfriend asked concerned, "You don't cry that often, and when you do, it's usually when you think about your homeworld."

"Well, yeah, I did think about it," Krystal said, one new tear coming down her white chin, "but I was actually thinking about Sly and Carmelita," she continued with a whisper, looking over at Sly who were telling Link, Ash and Rayman about some of his heists after he took on the Fiendish Five.

"Oh," Fox said, suddenly getting what Krystal was getting on about when he remembered that the raccoon thief and vixen inspector had a (most unusual) relationship. "So, what did those two do that made you think about Cerinia?" "Oh, I just thought that if I had been trained some more with my telepathic powers before my world was destroyed," some more tears ran from her eyes, "I could be able to show Carmelita what Sly really is on the inside." "Okay," Fox said, satisfied with the answer. He then gave her a hug while he said, "I'm so sorry about that, Krystal. I really wish that you could do something to show her what a great guy Sly really is, too."

_"__Who says she can't?"_ a voice suddenly said in their heads, making Fox and Krystal start out of the hug. "What? Who said that?" Fox asked in shock. "Who said what?" Mario asked back, looking away from the conversation he had just started with Michael and Ben. "What? Didn't you hear that?" the vulpine pilot said confused. "All I hear is you yelping for nothing," the plumber said, turning back to the half-wolf and his spectacled fox-friend.

"But, didn't they hear that voice?" Fox asked perplexed, still getting looks from the others inside the room for his sudden shout. "No, they couldn't, Fox," Krystal said, realizing the phenomenon, "That person who spoke to us didn't speak via our ears, they spoke via _our thoughts_." "Wha- what? You mean there's another telepath in this room with us?" Fox said in wonder. _"Exactly,"_ the voice from before said to them, sounding quite mirthy too, startling them again, but less than last time. _"Sorry I scared you."_

_"__No need to be,"_ Krystal said through her mind, linking with Fox so he could hear too, _"We just haven't talked with other telepaths before, that's all. Lylat isn't really a place where you'd find someone like that." "Well, you aren't in the Lylat System any longer, remember?"_ the voice said in return, and now Fox and Krystal could hear that it was a female's one, _"Then again, psychics aren't that bountiful around here either."_

_"__But that's besides the point!"_ the girl's voice continued, _"What I'm trying to tell you is that I can help you with Cooper's problem." "How?"_ Fox asked, before he said (mentally) to the voice, _"And who are __**you**__, by the way?"_

_"__Look at the girl sitting to Michael's left,"_ the voice said. Fox and Krystal did so, and saw a certain leopardess with a lynx's head and a peculiar spot-pattern. The vulpine couple looked at her, and she looked back, a cute and mischievous smile on her lips. _"You?" _Fox said in his mind. _"Falisa?"_ Krystal thought for herself, recognizing the girl's voice from earlier. _"Yep!"_ the feline thought back, giggling mentally at the two foxes. _"What, you forgot I know magic?" "No, not that,"_ Krystal thought to her, _"We just didn't know that psychic abilities were among your skills." "Oh, that's right,"_ Falisa thought with a humorous 'Doh!'-expression, _"I haven't told you about all my powers yet."_

_"__Anyway,"_ she continued, her long tail swinging nonchalantly behind the sofa she sat in, _"As I was 'saying', I can help you help Sly to get back in good terms with Carmelita again." "That's great,"_ Krystal thought with a happy look on her face, after which she asked, _"But how are you going to do that, exactly?"_

_"__Simple: Me and you, Krystal, are gonna join powers so we can show Carm a mental 'movie' of what Sly's been through and what he's done for her through his career,"_ Falisa thought back, raising herself from the sofa and walking over to the blue, young fox-woman. "What do you say?" She asked Krystal, using her physical voice now, "Shall we do a little 'heart-surgery'?"

"I'm all in," Krystal answered before looking at Fox. "I'm gonna try my best," she said to her love. "Good luck," Fox said to her, looking as she was helped up by Falisa, "I hope you'll be successful." "We'll be right back," Falisa said to the interstellar mercenary, "And don't worry, McCloud: this will be a piece of cake." And with that, the mixed cat-girl and the cerulean-furred she-fox went over to the ringtailed master-thief.

Sly, on his end, was just in the middle of his tale about a heist he and his gang did in Istanbul, with his audience listening intently to his story. "...And while Murray was at the remote-control-tank contest in the bar, I was sneaking my way past some burly guards on top of the main warehouse. Bentley had a suspicion it was there the-" "Sorry to interfere," a voice said, cutting in on the raccoon's tale, "But we need you for a little something right now."

Sly looked up and saw Falisa and Krystal looking at him. "Oh, hello ladies," he said, giving them a charming smile, "Now what do you fine girls need help with?" "Oh, it's not us who needs help," Falisa said with a smile and a mysterious glint in her right eye, "It's actually someone dear to you." "I'm not quite sure what you're talking about," Sly said, a slight quizzal look on his face. "You'll see soon enough," Krystal answered for her friend. "Now follow us," she said to him, taking his gloved hand and lifting him up. "Hey!" Ash said at the female fox from his couch, "He wasn't finished with his story." "I'll tell the rest after whatever business they need me for," Sly said to the human teen, shortly before Krystal and Falisa dragged him with them to the other side of the room.

"Man, and just when he was getting to the good part," Ash said with a frown, taking off his cap and placing it on the table next to him, "That's one of the coolest stories I've ever heard." "I can't believe you like listening to a furry thief tell about his capers," Misty said to him, stroking Pikachu who lay on her lap.

"Well, it is a bit weird, I know," Ash retorted, looking at the upstanding Zigzagoon-like man walking with the cat-and-vixen-duo to a corner of the room, "But he's so different from Team Rocket. I mean, stealing from other criminals and busting them while at it too? Can you imagine Jessie, James and Meowth doing that?"

"No, that'd be ridiculous," Misty laughed, trying to imagine the threesome stopping some thief from stealing a random guy's Pokémon. "But still," she continued, "I don't trust him like you do. I mean, _he's not human_." "Stop judging someone by their appearance," Ash said a bit angrily, "Remember your Psyduck? He's not much to look at either, but when it comes right down to it, he's been a great help to us. Mostly when his headache's been on the right level of course," he hastily added.

"Well, yeah that's right," Misty said a bit reluctant. "Okay I see your point. But still-" But farther then that she didn't get, because suddenly one of her Pokéballs opened up, and a certain yellow duck popped out in a flash. "Psy?" it quacked, looking at all the foreign people sitting around it.

"Psyduck!" Misty said, standing up so fast Pikachu fell on the floor. "Get back in your ball again, you nobrained mallard!"The bird Pokémon hardly listened because he saw a bowl of chips sitting on the table right in-between of Bentley and Penelope and Candy and Donkey Kong. Making a beeline for the snacks, Psyduck was followed shortly by Misty and Pikachu trying to catch him before he caused trouble.

Link just stared at the red-head and the yellow mouse running after the duck with the three black strands of hair on top of its head. "Does this happen often with your girlfriend and her pets?" he asked the teen monster-trainer. "Mostly once or twice a week with Psyduck, yeah," Ash explained for the Hylian knight, "But the rest of them are more content in their Pokéballs." Just then, another of Misty's Pokéballs opened up, revealing a small, blue mouse with two legs and a long, thin zigzaggy tail with a big blue sphere on its end, who started bouncing around on its tail all around the seated people. "Well, most of them, at least," Ash added, getting up to help catch his girlfriend's favorite Pokémon. "Come here, Azurill."

Link just looked at the funny chase that ensued, getting a few startled looks when the Pokémon did some of their elemental moves by accident, like Azurill shooting a stream of bubbles at Peach when it slipped in front of her, making the princess wet all over. Or when Donkey Kong knocked Psyduck on the head when he took the banana-flavored smoothie he just got from the kitchen, resulting in the gorilla getting an unexpected psychic lift-off under the roof before the duck's headache receded, making the poor monkey fall down a good ten feet and the duck making of with his drink, his trainer right behind him.

"And their world is filled with creatures like that?" the long-eared swordsman thought out loud. "Even a school of Octoroks seems easier to take care of than that duck." "You don't know the first of it," Michael said matter-of-factly, looking at the blue, jumpy adolescent mouse who bounced onto Penelope's lap and off again.

* * *

"Alright, what is it you need me for?" Sly asked the two girls, wondering what they wanted him for. In truth, Sly was actually nervous with being alone with the vixen and lynx-leopardess, especially when he knew they could perform magic. True, they were good guys- err, girls that is, but still, his past with magic-wielding females (or females at all) had him a bit on edge. He _were_ known as a real ladies man in some circles, true, but that was mostly old rumors from the past years while he was on the run from the law, and those again were from the alleged "rendezvous'" he had with Carmelita. _Mostly._

"No need to fret, Sly," Krystal said reassuringly, "We only want to help you out with something personal." "And what exactly would that be?" the procyon lotor asked, still uncertain about the two secretive females. "Simple: we're gonna reunite you and Carmelita," Falisa said plainly. Sly just looked at them with a hint of worry/shock in his face. "What? How are you going to do that?" he asked them. _"Like this,"_ Falisa said to his mind, making Sly fret a bit at suddenly hearing her voice not coming from her mouth.

"What the heck was that?" he asked, sounding pretty startled at hearing voices in his head. _"Do not worry,"_ Krystal spoke to him with her thoughts, _"We are talking to you via telepathy. You're not going crazy or something."_ Sly was overwhelmed at this, especially since he'd just _**thought**_ that he was going crazy only ten seconds ago.

Getting on, he thought up a reply, _"That's incredible! And let me guess: this is how you plan to negotiate with Carm?" "Right-o, Cooper,"_ Falisa thought triumphantly at him. _"So, shall we get on with this?"_ Krystal asked the raccoon. _"Lead the way, my lovely ladies,"_ Sly thought with a smile to them, making Krystal and Falisa grin back at him while they walked out on the balcony, catching sight of Fox on their way grabbing the mischievous Azurill by its tail before he released it when blue mouse spat a glob of water in his face.

* * *

Out on the balcony, Carmelita stood for herself, surrounded by big vases housing bushes of tropical origins, a couple of benches standing tidily by the railing. A breeze was flowing in from the sea, bringing the fresh smell of sea-salt over the building and into the desert. Seagulls were flying under some clouds moving lazily over the growing borders between seaweed and cactus.

The Spanish vixen was too occupied by her thoughts to marvel in the scenery, though. All she could think about was Sly Cooper. And not in a good kind of way, though not in a completely bad way either.

_Cooper, you sneaky liar!_ She thought with a scowl. _All this time you had me thinking that you had gotten amnesia after that reckless stunt you did back at Kaine Island, and now I find out you just faked it, all just so I wouldn't arrest you. You're lucky I don't have my phone with me; otherwise I'd call Interpol and haul your ass to jail already. And to think that Señor Julius Royalhart, of all people, would want "help" from a lousy guindón like you! And to top it of, these people have gotten your old gang together too, along with those other weird people from __**other worlds**__. Puh! _"Other worlds"_, mi culo__!_

_And yet,_ the Latin vixen thought a bit reluctant, _I don't really feel as mad as I'm supposed to be at you, Ringtail. Is it because I had an unknown hope that you really didn't have amnesia, and became a cop so you could finally work on the right side of the Law? On... _my_ side?_

_NO! _She thought angrily, arguing with herself. _Cooper's NOT like that. He's only been playing with my emotions again. Like he did on top of Krack-Karow Volcano! Or at Rajan's ball in India. Or on the helicopter ride over Paris... Okay, maybe not the last one, even though he escaped (when really his friends engineered the escape plan, and I think he _didn't_ know about it either). And it wasn't really his fault I was arrested because of that photo, that b**ch Neyla was the one who took it anyways. And that rose he put in my hair with his calling-card was actually a nice gesture. And that kiss... the first kiss we ever had, the first __**I**__ ever got...Not many, okay scratch that, almost NO one can brag about getting their first kiss ever on top of an active volcano. And, it was really-_

_-Enough!_ She stopped herself from getting too far into her emotional train of thought. _I'm not going to start thinking about the nice things about him. He's a C-R-I-M-I-N-A-L, and that's it! He's nothing more, and nothing less._

_"__Oh, I wouldn't be so sure about that, Señorita Fox,"_ an unknown thought said to her. Carmelita started with a yelp, looking around her with her pistol at the ready. "Que! Who said that?" she said with poorly-veiled fear. "Seriously, does my voice sound that threatening?" the same voice spoke again, only this time Carmelita heard it with her ears and not with her mind.

She turned around to the balcony door, where right in front of it stood Falisa, Krystal, and to her surprise, Sly. "You!" she said, looking away from the raccoon with a look of part anger, part sadness. "You dare come out here and talk with me, criminal?" "Actually," Sly said with uncertainness, "It's really these two ladies who dragged me out here to you. But yeah, I do want to talk to you."

"Well, tough luck, amigo," the voluptuous vulpine of Spanish heritage said to him, "I'm not in the mood to talk to a liar like you." "Carmelita, please hear me out," Sly said in a reasoning way, "I never meant to let you find out about my lie like this. In fact, I was going to tell you the truth sometime soon anyways."

"So you admit it?" Carmelita said hurt, "You _were_ going to abandon me, just like that?" "No!" the raccoon exclaimed in shock, "Carmelita, you're getting it all wrong. I just couldn't live with myself knowing we shared our lives by a lie. And I didn't want to let it rip us apart either." "Too bad, buster, it already have," Carmelita said back, a bit of venom in her voice too, Sly noticed.

"Carmelita, listen-" "No, you listen to me, Ringtail!" Carmelita stopped Sly midsentence, "I'm sick and tired of you always trying to sneak your way out of these kinds of situations! First I find our apartment empty after I come home from patrol, then I find a weird portal of some sort floating in _your_ room. Then when I walk into it, I find myself in a pit with a bunch of freaks.(Except you, Señora," she hurriedly said to Krystal politely.) "And then, you and your friends," here she pointed at Falisa, "Come and talks about Sly out of the blue, and show me him dressed up as a thief once more. Then, I get knocked out, and awaken to see you surrounded by your old cohorts. And I'm supposed to think that everything is alright?" She was shaking with anger, and then spat out to him in Spanish, "You, you... pedazo de mierda!"

Sly was hurt at that. Having been around Carmelita before, he'd learn quite a lot of Spanish, so he had no problem about understanding what she said. But that she called him a "piece of shit!" to his face like that, really made him down. He did understand her anger, but at the same time, he wished she could understand his actions and his reasons too.

"Carmelita, please," he began, but she only gave him a glare. She made a darn good job to coat her look with anger, but just seconds later, that coat changed to one of pure sadness. "Don't start, Cooper," Carmelita said looking away, her voice now at an alarmingly suicidal level. "At work, I got hounded by the male officers for my looks, or loathed by the female ones for them. I got yelled at at least once a week by Chief Barkley. I got rumors spreading around about me and you being sweethearts while I was supposed to bring you in. I got thrown in jail once because of you playing with my heart. I was many a time close to getting fired because of your escapades I didn't stop in time.

"And then, I bring you in, thinking you've got no recollection of who or what you really are, and try to make you a normal, legal man of the law. And then all this," she ended, looking inside at the small chaos that were still going on, "I get stopped dead in my tracks from taking you in where you belong by one of the most influential businessmen in the U.S.A., I get persuaded by some mutt into following you up here, and now I'm standing here, my emotions all jumbled up, a bunch of loons messing around just some thirty feet from me, and the man I thought I loved standing in front of me trying to say he's sorry for turning my life upside down in one fell swoop.

"I'm tired of my life," the emotionally exhausted vixen said, walking over to the railing and looking down from the balcony at the sandy ground below. Turning to look at the three sole people in the world who were watching her, she said, "Now, what's gonna stop me from putting an end to this f***ed up, meaningless life?" "Carmelita, NO!" Sly said to her, shocked at the thing she alluded to. "You can't be serious!" "Oh, I am serious, Ringtail," she said with tears streaming down her face, "After all that's happened today, what's to tell me I don't see how it is?" And then, she turned to the railing.

"Okay, that's enough!" A voice shouted to her, stopping the Latin vixen in her tracks. "You've been misreading it all from second one, Miss Montoya! One, Sly had no intention to give you suicidal ideas. Two, your life have never been worthless. And three, you're a stubborn, confused girl who can't for the love of her life see that we're trying to help you!"

Carmelita turned, and saw Falisa giving her a most uncensored face of disbelief, anger and... a smile? "You don't really want to jump and kill yourself for something as stupid as heartbreak anyway, right?" the part-lynx said to her with a milder tone, before she continued, "And besides, how could you do that to the man who saved your life, like, over a dozen times?"

Carmelita looked at the young feline with a stupefied look. "What the Diablo are you talking about, young señorita?" she asked perplexed at what she meant. "I'm talking about Clockwerk, the Contessa, Neyla, Octavio, Doctor M, and bunches more, that's what I'm talking about!" Falisa said to her, making both Carmelita and Sly look at her with shocked looks. Krystal who didn't have any idea about these people who Falisa mentioned, asked her mentally, _"Were they bad people?" "They were TONS worse than "bad", girl,"_ Falisa told her, _"You'll see in some moments."_

"How do you know about the Contessa and M, Miss Gaup?" Sly asked her, his wondering for Falisa's knowledge getting to the same level as his wondering for Michael's. "That's for "later explanations", as my boyfriends says it," the cat-girl said with a grin. "Right now, I think Miss Fox here needs some **really**-behind-schedule explanations so she can get back on track."

"I don't feel like listening to a damn thing that blasted raccoon has to say," Carmelita said with a most un-cooperative back-turning to the master thief. _"Who said anything about talking?"_ Falisa said mentally to her, making Carmelita look in all directions for the source of the phenomenon.

"Who **is it** that speaks to my **head**?" she asked out loud and angrily. _"Calm yourself down, Miss Fox, and look at me,"_ Falisa commanded her, making the Spanish vixen stop her frantic search and turn to the two girls that stood besides Sly. "One of you are doing that?" She asked them, not liking this at all. _"Actually, we can both speak with our minds,"_ Falisa told her with a grin, turning to look a Krystal who only nodded back at her. _"But enough about us,"_ she continued, her bleak orange-brown, spotted tail swinging in an impatient motion, _"It's time you got a look at what Sly really is!"_

Before Carmelita could retort, Falisa and Krystal grabbed her hands, then grabbed Sly's, and then they began to glow their respective fur-colors: Krystal in ocean-blue and white, and Falisa in brown, bleak orange and slight gold, with deep black coming from her hair. Just moments later, Carmelita began to glow her red, light-brown and her hair's raven-dark blue, and Sly shortly followed with his all-over grey and his mask's and tail-rings' black.

They all stood still, as if frozen in time. Soon, their glowing colors grew into auras, surrounding their respective beings of origin. Then they began to circle the four on the balcony, slowly at first, then picking up pace, and within a minute, the colored auras were flying around them like in a tornado, rising to the sky like lights from a plethora of spotlights with colored lenses.

Some of the people in New Preda stopped up to look at the bizarre lightshow that was going on at the Royalhart facility. They had never in all of the time the building stood seen something like this coming from the secretive lion's most recent pseudo-headquarters.

Some of them theorized that it was probably some kind of experiment they were conducting, or some party-lights they tested for an event.

Boy, if only they knew what really made those lights.

And no one noticed the three small _spaceships_ entering the atmosphere in the guise of the magic lightshow...


	9. Ch 8: Duty of heart, part 2

Duty of heart- part 2

Carmelita wanted to scream, but her jaw was shut tight. She couldn't let go, she couldn't turn away, she couldn't move at all. All she could do was watch as the colors blazing around them began to slow down. And while they did, she could see that the colors began to change. At first, they had consisted of their individual fur-colors, but now, they began to turn into some colors she knew all too well: grey, blue, and gold.

Specifically, Sly's raccoon-fur's grey, his thieving-clothes' blue, and his cane-hook's gold.

And then, the colors faded into nothing. And with them, Carmelita, Falisa, Krystal and Sly turned into nothing too.

At least, that's what it looked too her. In reality, they still stood on the balcony, frozen in their hand-linked positions in an unconscious state.

What they experienced, was a mental trip into their minds. More specifically, into Sly's mind.

* * *

When Carmelita could see again, she saw herself, Sly, Krystal and Falisa all stood in an open, light-blue void, patterned with odd and intricate patterns of grey and gold. Spotted around them were orbs of many different colors that floated in the air around them, but the ones that stood out were blue(of course), green, different shades of purple( and one that also was part white), metallic grey, and one that stood out most of all, deep red.

Falisa was the first one to 'speak', though she did so telepathically. _"Alright, it worked! Great job, Krystal." "I had no idea this would happen," _the Cerinian vixen thought in awe at the view,_ "But, thank you, Falisa."_

"_What in Dios... Wait! I'm not even moving my mouth! How the Demonio can I talk when I'm not talking?" _Carmelita exclaimed in shock._ "You're not talking at all, Miss Fox," _Krystal thought to her,_ "You're speaking with your mind; that's how we spoke to you earlier when you freaked out."_

"_With my mind?"_ Carmelita thought, confused at the aspect of speaking without her vocal cords. _"I didn't think that was possible." "You have no idea how many times I've heard that one,"_ Falisa "said" with a grin, and continued shortly, _"But now, let us show you something that makes your criminal __**confidante's**__ actions make sense." "I don't like this really,"_ Carmelita thought with a frown mixed with puzzlement, _"But if it has to be done, and seeing as I have no idea how to get out of here, I guess I'm in."_

"_Great! Now, after you, Cooper,"_ Falisa told Sly, with the raccoon only giving her an uncertain smile. _"After I what, exactly?"_ he asked the half-leopardess. _"She means show us your memories, silly,"_ Krystal thought, giving him a slight shove in the direction of the big blue sphere swirling close to him. _"But, I've never shown my memories to anyone,"_ Sly thought with a slight blush on his handsome features, _"And besides, I don't know how this "mind-system" works either."_

"_Don't worry, Sly,"_ Falisa said to him, walking over to the blue sphere, _"When you touch it, you'll know how to handle it." "Okay,"_ Sly said, moving over to the sphere himself. After some nervous seconds, he touched the sphere with his left hand, and when nothing happened, with his right one.

Just when both his hand was pressed onto the shining surface of the sphere, Sly suddenly jerked straight up as blue light swept over him, looking like he was being electrocuted. Carmelita actually got a fearful(and concerned) look on her face seeing Sly looking like some kind of energy went forcefully trough him, which by the way was what happened to him for real, mentally speaking of course.(All this happens in their mind, remember?) Falisa and Krystal only started a bit when Sly stiffened in shock, but something told them that this was necessary, so they watched calmly as the process endured.

After a minute or so, Sly's body relaxed from the shock, but something was up with his eyes. Instead of their normal caramel-brown, they shone a golden hue, which actually made him look a bit scary. Still holding his paws on the sphere, he turned his head and looked over at Carmelita. _"Well, here's your chance to see what I've grown up to be, from the day I was born,"_ he spoke to her mentally, but with an echoing feature that wasn't there before, one that made him sound... wiser, Krystal and Falisa thought, looking at the raccoon before turning over to the raven-haired vixen.

Carmelita was really freaked out at all the stuff that had happened, but somehow she couldn't help but step closer to the blue sphere that shone under Sly's hands. At first reluctant to touch it, afraid that she'd get a shock like Sly just endured, her mind now began to swim in questions about the raccoon, questions she'd buried long ago, now burning inside her skull like they wanted to break out and get their long kept-away answers.

And with a fast and most sudden motion, her hands pressed hard onto the sphere's surface.

Not one second after she had put her hands on it, the sphere swelled up, rose higher into the air and shone brightly, the other colors and spheres in the void around them fading into black. To their surprise, Falisa and Krystal still stood there, and they quickly looked over at Sly and Carmelita who still stood with their hands planted on the sphere, now on its nether-parts.

Inside the sphere, they could see something moving, at first only a blur. But soon enough, the blur turned into shapes, and with them followed accompanying sounds.

"_...a boy! It's a boy!"_ they heard a male voice saying from the sphere, and shortly thereafter, they heard a baby's cry, now seeing a shape that matched the sound: a baby raccoon being lifted into the arms of its mother, a young woman looking very exhausted, but also very happy at the same time. They then saw a person sitting right next to the female raccoon. He looked almost exactly like Sly, except for some differences like his slightly more jagged face, dark-brown eyes instead of caramel-brown ones, and a few light but noticeable scars on his chin, over his left eye, one slicing halfway through the middle of his right ear, and one that went over his snout and barely marked his nose.

He was also dressed more casually, except for the hat he wore on his head. Carmelita instantly recognized it as Sly's trademark cap.

"_Like I told you,"_ Sly thought to them, "_My life from day one." "That is your parents?"_ Carmelita thought in wonder, almost not believing the sight in front of her. _"Yes, my sweet. That is Connor Cooper and Marianne Gillian Cooper, my father and mother,"_ Sly thought, a smile on his lips.

And from there, the foursome watched as Sly showed them his childhood memories, ranging from simple ones like young Sly watching the clouds with his mother on a hill, to more interesting ones like his father taking them on trips around the world and telling his son about some of the incredible heists he had pulled of with his gang.

Carmelita watched intently at the situations playing in front of her, actually smiling at the kind and happy memories Sly showed them. Subconsciously she thought, _"And I who had always imagined Cooper growing up with no- good parents that behaved like scoundrels. On the contrary, they are some of the kindest persons I've ever seen."_

"_Still, they were criminals no matter how you look at them,"_ she thought to herself with a more serious expression. No sooner had she ended that sentence when the scene in the sphere shifted to one of Sly as a slightly older kid, sitting on his father's lap while Connor smoked from a pipe.

"_Well Sly,"_ they heard Connor say to his son, _"Tomorrow is your birthday. Do you remember how many years you become this year?" "Um,"_ young Sly said uncertain, counting on his fingers, _"...five, six, seven... Eight!" he exclaimed. "Right-o, Sylvester," _Connor said proudly to his son, using the long version of his name, _"You really know your counting by hand now, eh?" _At this both father and son laughed at the simple joke he unintentionally made. _Or was it really unintended?_ Carmelita thought to herself, smiling at the joke too.

Then Connor spoke again. _"Well, it's about time you got old enough for me to tell you our family's history." "What story, dad?"_ little Sly said intently to his father, looking ready to be told a new and exiting tale about grand capers and big-shot criminals who got their just desserts served by his dad or his grandfather. _"Not just any story, son,"_ Connor said proudly, _"It's the story about our family, going all the way back to ancient Egypt." "Wow! Did my great-great-great-(many greats)-grandfather steal from pharaohs and mummies and crocodiles and stuff like that?" _little Sly said in childish awe._ "He did, son," _Connor said with a grin to his son,_ "Though only from pharaohs and other high-ranking men who didn't follow the rules of their land and kept all the treasures for themselves. And they were plenty, I can tell you."_

And then Connor continued the Cooper Line's long and rich tale, which was very instructive and fascinating for both lil'Sly _and_ the three young women outside the sphere, especially Carmelita.

"_I had no idea Sly's family did so much... good for the world,"_ she thought out loud unintentionally, _"Really, no man can just think up a story like that on the spot __**and **__make it sound believable at the same time. It's gotta be real!" "And it is, Carm," _the grown-up Sly next to her retorted with a faint smile, _"That tale's as real as it can be."_

"_Is all that for real, dad?"_ lil'Sly inside the blue sphere of memory asked his father, _"Arabian thieves, knights in England, pirates of the Seven Seas, cowboys in the Wild West, and pilots in the World Wars? That's a lot of guys, dad." "Yes, Sylvester, they were all for real,"_ Connor told his small kid, _"But they weren't all guys, remember. One of our most prominent pirate ancestors was Henrietta "One Eye" Cooper, and she was a girl, yes, but she was as tough as five of the worst seadogs that scoured the Caribbean."_

"_I don't believe you,"_ young Sly said, _"No one of the girls I have seen is tough at all. They only play with dolls and play "Pretend mom, dad and baby" and other stupid girly games." "They do at your age, yes," _Connor said mirthy to his son,_ "But just you wait until you get older. The girls you'll get to see then will be a lot feistier then, and a lot cuter too, might I add."_

"_Yuck! When I grow up, I'm not gonna marry anyone,"_ lil'Sly said in childish disgust. _"Oh, you'll find someone that'll you like in time," _the older Cooper told his son,_ "Trust me, there's someone out there for any young, strapping fellows like you, and she'll come from where you'd least expect it." "Will not," _lil'Sly retorted with a stuck-out tongue.

"_So you didn't like girls at an early age, eh?" _Carmelita said to the raccoon by her side. _"No, I didn't really like any girls, or women in general, except for my mom,"_ Sly said truthfully to the girl who _had_ captured his heart, _"But that was before I met you." "Really?"_ She asked quizzal, _"Wouldn't there be plenty of nice girls to meet on the streets while you were a teen?" "Well yeah, there were many you could consider cute and nice and all that," _Sly told her_, _before he got a serious and sad look on his face, _"But during that time, I was too occupied with something more important to me than relationships." "What was that?"_ Carmelita asked, having forgotten what had been the most prominent factor behind Sly's devotion to rob and stop corrupt men and women alike.

"_Revenge,"_ was the answer Sly gave her, a simple but impacting word that got Carmelita's own memory banks a push to what Cooper meant, the actual reason he had for showing her this particular memory.

"_Oh no,"_ she said in sudden fear, getting a pricking in her neck that told her something really, _really_ bad was about to happen.

Inside the sphere, the father Cooper was talking to his son again, unaffected by the atmosphere outside the memory. _"Well enough talk about the Cooper Clan and "flowers and bees", Sylvester. Tomorrow will be an eventful day for you, so it's about time you got some shuteye for the night." "Oh, come on, dad,"_ lil'Sly whined to his old man, _"Can't you tell me one more story about one of my ancestors, please?" "No can do, kiddo,"_ Connor told the young boy, before he took hold of his son and lifted him up on his back, _"But tomorrow, you'll get to read all about them as much as you'd like."_

"_Huh?"_ young Sly asked with a growing smile, _"Do you mean, read from that book you read all the time, the, uh, "Thiefus Raccoonslush?" "Actually, its name is the "Thievious Raccoonus","_ Connor corrected him, "_But yes, from tomorrow of, that book is yours to read, and yours to own."_

"_COOOOOOL!" _lil'Sly whooped in joy, giving his dad a big hug around the neck, actually making it hard for the older raccoon to breath._ "Thank you so much dad, it's the best birthday present I'll ever get!" "I'm glad to know your eagerness, Sly," _his father said to the young 'coon when he released his hug,_ "But let me tell you, when that book is in your possession, you'll be a real Cooper thief. You're going to become a great thief, just like me, and you'll learn all the moves that are a Cooper worthy. And hopefully," _he added, _"you'll become so good, you can add a move or two to the "Raccoonus" yourself."_

"_Wow,"_ the small raccoon cub looked at his dad with big eyes, before he suddenly looked at his father with a concerned look, _"But, what if I loose the book someday? Won't I stop being a master thief then?" "Oh no, Sylvester, that'll never happen,"_ Connor told him with a wise look on his face, _"No Cooper have ever been without the "Raccoonus" in their entire career. And even if you'd loose it someday, you would most likely find it again someplace or other in the world. And most importantly," _here Connor lowered his voice so lil'Sly had to lean down some more on his back,_ "You should know that, the "Thievious Raccoonus" Doesn't make master thieves. It takes master thieves to make the "Thievious Raccoonus"."_

"_What does that mean, dad?" _young Sly asked his father. _"It means-" _his father started, but stopped when he heard a knock on the door. _"Huh? Hold on, Sly,"_ Connor said, lifting Sly off of his shoulders and onto the floor, _"I'm gonna see who it is."_

"_Prepare yourself for a gruesome sight,"_ the grown-up Sly besides Carmelita told her, _"This is the harsh part of this memory."_ Carmelita looked at him with a slight fear at how calm he sounded when he said that, almost... _dead_ calm.

Just as she turned back to the sphere, there was a sinister, metallic voice that came from it. _"__Finally, I have found you, __**Cooper.**__"_ The tone of that voice was so cold, it actually made Carmelita shiver at the sound of it, and Crystal and Falisa got goose-bumps from hearing the voice.

They then saw Connor run into the room again, his face pale as if he'd seen a ghost. He then scooped up young Sly, rushed over to a closet under the stairs, and placed Sly inside it. _"Hey! What are you doing, dad?"_ lil' Sly yelped to his father. _"No time to explain, Sly,"_ Connor said trembling, closing the closet door hurriedly, _"Just sit still in there, be quiet, and whatever happens, __**don't leave that closet.**__"_

"_Why? What's going-"_ young Sly started inside the closet, but he stopped when a loud crash sounded. Opening the door a tiny bit and peeking out, Sly saw his father with a familiar cane in his left hand, standing in front of a bulldog with massive arms and ridiculously small legs, a small frog with a top hat made of metal plating, a tough panda with white and deep purple fur instead of the normal white and **black**, and an alligator woman with long black hair on her head and a big ruby stuck in her scaly navel.

After they had looked at each other for five seconds, the bulldog suddenly lunged at Connor with a big hand, but the adult raccoon just jumped out of the way and hit the giant dog in the head with the gold hook of his cane.

After that, all Hell broke loose in that house.

Bullets riddled the walls, parts of the floor were on fire, and wet drops of spit and blood went everywhere along with sinister clouds of bad mojo and other hexes. Both the frog and gator woman were beaten a few minutes into the fight, but the big dog and the Asian bear was still going strong against the smaller raccoon man, though they were wavering slightly from all the blows they'd gotten from him.

Carmelita was looking at the older Cooper with great disbelief. He had knocked down Sir Raleigh and Miss Ruby in minutes **and **made both Muggshot and Panda King look tired and battered like he was beating them with more strength than they could possibly muster themselves.

As Panda swung another flaming fist at the smoothly evading master thief, the same metallic voice from earlier shouted in anger, _"__You no good morons! Can't you beat even one measly raccoon without me to assist you?__" "Sorry, boss,"_ the bulldog Muggshot said angrily back to his leader, _"But this 'ere damn 'coon just won't stan' still long enough fer us to hit even an inch!"_

Just then, a female voice sounded from upstairs. _"Connor? What the heavens is going on down there?" "Marianne! No! Don't come down here!"_ Connor shouted up to his wife. They then heard footsteps over Sly inside the closet, stopping just after five steps sounded. _"Oh my God!"_ they heard Sly's mother shout in shock at the sight of her husband fighting against some big men and the whole living-room looking like a war-zone.

"_Well, well, looky here,"_ Muggshot said when he saw Marianne, _"A 'coon woman. And a lovely young one at that, too." "If you so much as __**touch**__ my wife, I'll-" "__You'll what, Cooper?"_the chilly voice spoke again, making the three girls outside the sphere cringe in fear of the in-humanly emotionless tone._ "__There's no escape for you anywhere in the world, you filthy rag-matt. Neither you or your wife will get away from me this time."_

Then they heard a grunt and a loud yell from over Sly, and the raccoon kid peeked farther out from the closet. There, he and the others outside the memory sphere saw Muggshot holding his mother in his right big fist, his grip on her so tight she was barely able to breathe.

"_Mom!" _lil' Sly yelled and flew out the door at the behemoth dog._ "Sly! No! Don't-" _Connor shouted at his son, but too late. The small raccoon was suddenly snatched up by the panda bear right besides Muggshot. _"Hold it, young one,"_ Panda King said to him, _"This is a grown-up matter. You don't have anything in the saying." "Yes I do,"_ the little ringtailed boy said angrily to the bear, _"And I say that you big meanies let my mom go right now, or else me and daddy's gonna make you pay!" "HAH! Listen to that tiny runt, Clockwerk!"_ Muggshot laughed to the shadowy being outside the door, _"He thinks that he can beat us up. Isn't that real cute?"_

"_Enough of this!__" _the metal voice screamed inside the room, making the bulldog loose his stupid smile and replace it with a frightened expression,_ "__Step aside and let me take care of them.__" "What! But you'll destroy the buil-"_ Muggshot started, but his master just ignored him and slammed a heavy, **big** talon down the wall in front of them, the crash waking the unconscious hatted amphibian and voodoo reptile. _"Who, what! You're not getting away that easily, my good sir! I'll-" "Shut it, froggy. It seems ol' Clocky decided to jump into the action."_

"_Exactly, Ruby my dear,__"_ the cold voice replied to the alligator. And while the dust swirled, a big looming figure stepped into the now wrecked living-room of the Cooper residence, two yellow lights looking over the scene. As the dust began to settle, the veiled being turned visible to the people in the room.

Carmelita cringed, and Krystal and Falisa became startled at the sight of the giant old owl that appeared. He was made completely out of metal, was double the size of Muggshot, and looked as gruesome as the Devil himself, no sign of any emotion but cold hatred etched into his menacing yellow "eyes", if you could call those glowing glass lenses over his iron beak that.

"_So,__"_ Clockwerk started, _"__Finally, I have the chance to annihilate the last living remains of the wretched Cooper Clan. The last descendant of Slythunkamen, his wife, and his brat of a son.__" "Hey!"_ the small raccoon said insulted to the metal bird, _"I'm not a brat! And my family isn't wretched, you big, fat, wannabe Transformer-reject!"_ _"Sly, don't anger him,"_ Connor said warily to his son.

"_Heh. So you think I look like a reject from a stupid kid's cartoon, little whelp?__"_ Clockwerk said to the young Sly. _"__Well tough luck, my boy. I am nothing like those stupid fictional robot-cars. I am far more than you could possibly understand. I am a __**Death Devil**__ in real life.__"_

"_If you're a devil, then I'm the priest who shall banish you back to the scrap-yard where you belong,"_ Connor said threatingly to the metal beast in front of him. _"__I'd like to see you try, Connor,__"_ Clockwerk spat out his name, _"__Neither your father, grandfather nor any one of your ancestors have managed that feat yet.__" "Well, maybe I won't either,"_ Connor said with a frown at him, before he looked at his wife and son, "_But I won't go down without a fight, neither will I let you harm my family any further."_

The fight that ensued between the raccoon-man and the metal owl was even more incredible than the last battle. Even Sly was amazed at what his father had managed during that fight. Clockwerk actually became more than "slightly banged" in several places on his robotic body, while Connor got only a slight, but bloody gash on his left leg a good while into the brawl of death. They could see he grimaced in pain, but the older raccoon repaid the metal monster with knocking him so hard on the left wing with his cane, it actually bent and began to spill oil.

They fought like mad for what seemed like an eternity, until Connor smashed his cane into Clockwerks head, destroying his left optical lens in the process. That's when the bird became really mad and began to flail about in the room, destroying a lot of the remaining furniture and accidentally smacking into Muggshot at the same time.

Then out of the blue, a sudden **'BOOM!'** was heard, followed by a hurt yell and a mad cackle. Clockwerk finally calmed down, and found that Ms. Ruby had cast a surprise attack spell on Connor while he was focused on the owl, with the poor raccoon now lying down on the ground with burnt marks on his torso and singed whiskers, held down by _skeletal_ arms that rose from swirling black holes in the ground. Outside the sphere, Falisa turned pale at the sight of death bones moving and gripping around on the man. _"Oh, gross,"_ she thought with a shivering tone, _"Living dead..."_

"_Ah, excellent, Ruby,__" _Clockwerk said to the voodoo priestess, _"__This will make a fantastic direct hit.__"_ And so, the owl lowered his head to his victim, and spoke to him, _"__I have to give it to you, Connor, you are a good fighter. Although, you are nothing without your cane, your book, or your petty gang of miscreants.__" "Don't you dare insult Jim and Doc in front of my face!"_ Connor barked into the monster's face, _"They are some of the best gang-members and friends I could've ever have gotten, and a lot more trustworthy than any of your men."_

"_Really, now?__"_ Clockwerk said with a hint of a smirk, _"__Then how do you think I finally found you?__" _That left Connor in a shocked state, which turned into a disbelieving one. _"No, it can't be... They wouldn't... They couldn't-" "__Oh, but they did,__"_ Clockwerk said plainly, adding in a sinister whisper, _"__At least, __**one**__ of them did. All I had to do, was offer him all the gold inside of your family's undeserved loot stash, and he told me where your hiding place were in a flash. That fool, he became so enthralled with the thoughts of becoming richer than any man on earth, he completely forgot to add in that I can and will kill him as soon as he's unlocked your little treasury.__"_

"_You'll have to wait a long time for that to happen, you bloody vulture,"_ Connor said back at the metallic bird with a slight grin, _"That door opens only for one of Cooper blood. And before that happens, you'll be nothing but rusted scrap." "__Too bad you won't see me correct you when that time comes, Cooper,__" _Clockwerk said as he rose up again, _"__Because your time is up.__"_

"_Muggshot, throw Connor's wife to him,__"_ Clockwerk said to the bulldog, with the giant canine taking his boss' words to his heart and hurling Marianne right besides her husband, more bony arms coming forth to take hold of the startled ringtailed woman, _"__It would be to bad for the poor man to leave this world without his love, would it?__" "NO!"_ lil' Sly yelled in shock and fear, _"You can't kill my mom and dad!"_

"_Oh, yes I can, little whelp, and I will_," the owl said with a cold glare to the young boy, before he looked down at Connor again, _"__Don't worry, Connor. I won't kill your son tonight. But I won't let him go without seeing your deserved demise __**and**__ your family's treasured book gone, your clan finally bereft of your secret little moves and fancy tricks that have left me and my compatriots out of the big plunders for several centuries.__"_ He then said, with an unholy evil tone and grin, _"__And the best thing is, your sniveling runt of a son will never be able to attain the same, undeserving status as one of the "greatest" thieves the world have ever seen.__"_

"_I have waited so long for this moment,__" _Clockwerk said with a maniacal look, raising himself to his full height before he shouted, _**"And now, I will finally destroy the Cooper Clan forever!"**_ And then, he drove his beak wide open onto Connor, the ringtailed master thief screaming in un-earthly pain, before he suddenly went still, his body not moving any longer.

"_**CONNOR!"**_ Marianne yelled in fear, shortly before she looked up to the damned metal creature who killed her mate. _"__And now for you, you unlucky bitch,__"_ Clockwerk said, before he repeated his deadly move on her.

"_**NOOOOO!"**_ the younger version of Sly wailed at the sight of his mother being murdered, soon lying unmoving besides her husband in a pool of blood, big gashes in both their abdomens. _"Mommy! Daddy!" _But after seeing their bodies making no sign of life, the small raccoon turned his head and began to cry. Panda King, who was holding him in his arm, only slightly moved himself away from the bodies, not liking the sight of death any more than the kid in his hand, but not caring much more than that about it.

"_Yes... Yes. **YES!** Finally, I have killed the last true Cooper forever!__"_ Clockwerk cackled in madness, with the other thugs inside the house laughing along with their boss, but with a slightly nervous tone in their voices. _"Bravo, Sir. That was a most marvelous battle,"_ Sir Raleigh said while he clapped for the owl, _"And that ending speech: so fitting and gruesome, it was almost a work of poetry." "Ya sure made him squirm before ya killed him, Boss,"_ Muggshot laughed, the dog being unaffected by the gory scene as he had seen a whole lot of them in his time as a gangster leader.

"_Thank you, my loyal men,__"_ Clockwerk said with a cold smile, _"__And thank you, Ms. Ruby, for aiding me with that "gripping" move of yours.__" "Ah, it was nothing, my big hunk of metallic powerfulness,"_ Ms. Ruby said flattered at the mention, _"It was simpler than breaking my sister's ex-boyfriend's neck. And he was a paper-thin rattlesnake!"_

"_Now then,__"_ Clockwerk said as he scanned the room, _"__I think it is high time we found that infernal book that has helped those raccoons with ruining my life for all these years. Look for a hidden vault or something...__"_, and with that, the memory ended.

* * *

Falisa and Krystal were very shaken by the terrible sight they had seen, but Carmelita was **way** more affected than them by the memory. She was still seeing the cold and uncaring look Clockwerk had on his face when he murdered Sly's parents, and then the sight of the younger version of the current master thief crying at the sight of his mother and father dead on the floor.

She then looked over at the grown-up Sly standing besides her, who was now looking at the blue sphere with teary eyes, the effect of the memory ball that let him show his past experiences with a calm spirit now lifted of him. _"Mom, Dad..."_ he quietly sobbed.

Carmelita couldn't take it any more, and hugged tightly onto the rightful raccoon-thief, her eyes too wet by tears. But hers were different. They were not only for feeling sorry for Sly's parents' demise, but also for her finally seeing the raccoon with a new light. _"Oh, Sly, I'm so sorry for that,"_ she thought truthfully and sobbingly, _"I never knew you had to witness that horrible sight when you were that young."_

"_I- I never got to say goodbye to them, even,"_ Sly thought with a hoarse voice, _"He just m-murdered them, g-gloated at it, and stole the book, tore it up, and fled with his gang, leaving me with a ruined home and d-dad's cane. And my p-parents as, a-as..."_

"_Don't think about that any longer, Ringtail,"_ Carmelita thought to him, trying only partly to stop her own tears, _"Your father and mother wouldn't want you to linger by such a sad memory anyhow, right? They would want you to remember all those nice times you had with them instead." "I-I know,"_ Sly thought with a look of suffer and longing, _"But seeing that memory all over again, it really makes me want to cry to the sky , knowing they are... a-are d-dead, and that I will never get to see them again. I just feel so, s-so lost..."_

"_Hey, cheer up, Sly," _Falisa thought, trying to talk the man out of the sorrow even though she and Krystal had a hard time with their _own_ tears, _"You don't have to think about that time any longer, anyway, what with you having beaten that giant clockwork chicken into smithereens, no less than TWO times, __**and**__ you and your friends completely eradicating him from the face of the planet all those years ago."_ She then looked at Carmelita with a smile and thought, _"Besides, you have never been lonely, what with Bentley and Murray to help you recover with their friendship and brotherly love, and Carm here with making your life feel, ah, more exciting and worthwhile, right?"_

"_Please, señorita Falisa,"_ Carmelita thought actually blushing at the half-lynx's remark, _"I never was anything but a pain in Cooper's butt until that day on that island all those years ago."_ She then turned to Sly's tearstained face and looked apologetically into his eyes, _"I'm really sorry for all those times I have hunted after you and shouted insults at you, Sly. I never thought you had so much to live up to, and such painful memories from your childhood. I never could have known that you and your family really helped the world's population instead of ripping them off like every other criminal."_

"_It's not your fault, Carmelita,"_ Sly thought with a less sad expression to the vixen, _"We Coopers always had to keep our profession a secret, other-ways we would never been able to pull of helping the world in our own way without bad people taking advantage of us. Besides, we couldn't just go to the police and say, "Hello, we snuck into some corrupt CEO's villa and stole some documents that prove he is an illegal arms-dealer, along with some jewels he won't miss anyway," could we?"_ The last sentence made all four in the mind-space chuckle at the poor joke.

"_Ha, ha, ha, ha, hah. Ah, that was a stupid joke, Ringtail,"_ Carmelita thought at him with a smirk, before she smiled at the raccoon, _"But, I think we actually needed that one." "Yeah, it feels lots better with a happy atmosphere than a sad, gloomy one, that's for darn sure,"_ Falisa piped up again, glad the cop-and-thief-couple were in a better mood after the sad-and-painful memory,_ "Besides, neither of you have no need to feel lonely any longer now, right? I mean,"_ she shyly added, _"You have each other to share your future with, eh, that is, if you still love each other?"_

"_Love? LOVE?"_ Sly thought ridiculed at the cat-girl, _"Girl, you have no idea how much I love and care for this fantastic woman in my arms!" "Really, now?"_ Falisa thought with a slight grin on her pretty lips, _"Please elaborate." "Where to begin,"_ Sly thought, finding himself oddly wanting to tell the whole world if he could how much he loves the Spanish vixen.

"_She-no! You,"_ he started, then stopped and started over again, turning to look at Carmelita with a sincere expression of adoration, _"You are a beautiful and smart woman, who've got a great sense of humor, is an incredible cook, and got a healthy competitive nature AND the body to compensate it with. And also, to be honest, I find your Latin- accent to be fit for an angel,"_ Sly ended with a blush.

"_Oh, Sly, I never thought you really felt all that for me,"_ Carmelita thought with a pretty smile on her mouth, _"I mean, how could you love the person who were dead-bent on putting you in jail for your crimes?" "That's a little hard to explain, actually,"_ Sly thought with a slightly thoughtful look, _"But I think the main reason was that you were so, I don't know, pure. You were and still is a person who strives for a better world to live in, and you aren't the kind of woman who uses dirty tricks unless necessary to get it your way. Not to mention, you helped me and my gang so many times, both when you knew it and not, I couldn't help but grow feelings for you._

"_What I'm trying to say is, you're an exceptional woman with a truly unpolluted look on what's right and wrong, and you deserve so much more than what you have, and I can only hope that I have as big a place in your heart as you have in mine,"_ Sly ended with a true smile of love for the girl in front of him.

"_...Sly,"_ Carmelita thought with tears in her eyes, and before the raccoon master thief could blink, she hugged him tightly and gave him a long and lovingly sweet kiss right on his lips. Sly was totally taken of guard by the vixen's move, but he really liked the sensation. This was something else than all those kisses they had shared while he was under the guise of amnesia; this was the first **true** kiss of love they had ever shared.

After the kiss had lasted an eternity or so, they heard a coughing sound and then Falisa who thought,_ "Sheesh, could you wait with that intimacy 'till you are in private?"_ At that Sly and Carmelita parted embarrassingly, red blushes tainting cutely through their cheek-fur. _"Please, Falisa, be gentle with them,"_ Krystal thought a bit scoldingly to the feline, _"After all they've been through now, can't you allow them to compensate for their lost passion even for a moment?"_

"_Well excuse me, Miss McCloud," _Falisa thought a bit peevishly,_ "But a kiss that lasts for a minute-and-a-half is more than __one__ moment in my book. To be blunt, that kiss almost falls under my "see ya in bed"-category,"_ the half-leopardess added cheekily. _"Oh, for the love of guns," _Krystal thought with a hapless grin,_ "I can see now what that Michael character sees in you."_

"_Well, enough about that,"_ Falisa quickly thought, looking over to the raccoon-and-vixen-couple, "_What do you say, Cooper? Fancy showing us some happier and livelier memories of yours? I think Carmelita would love to see some of your adventures with your gang from your perspective."_

"_Well, what do you say, Carm?"_ Sly thought to his love with a charming glint in his eye, _"Are you interested in seeing the Cooper Gang as what we really were?" "Oh, you have no idea how much I want to know, amigo!" _Carmelita thought out loud with a really happy and interested look on her face.

Krystal looked at the couple with a happy expression of her own, glad to know she have helped two souls meant for each other make amends to their relationship. _"Thank you Falisa,"_ she thought to the young feline, _"I'm happy for you aiding me in helping those two with getting together again." "Aw, it was nothing, really,"_ Falisa thought with a grin,_ "You did most of the job, I only added my powers to yours, you know. Had you only been a little more experienced, I think you could have done this on your own."_

"_Well, that's nice to hear from you,"_ Krystal thought with a sincere smile before she looked over at the orbs floating around the area, and then back at Falisa, _"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm actually itching to know more of this raccoon and his friends." "You and me both, sista," _Falisa thought with an imitation of Pablo's accent that left both girls laughing as they followed the cop-and-thief-couple to their next memory-sphere.

* * *

_Alright! The cop-and-thief couple is reunited!_

_Well, that's it for Carmelita's onlook on Sly. Seriously, wouldn't you get a new onlook on someone if you saw something as brutal as their parents' death? If not, you've got no heart._

_And so, we'll be switching over to the rest of the crew soon, BUT! There's a new gang coming into the story. Remember the last line of chapter 7?_

_The only hint to who they'll be I'm gonna give you, are these lines:_

_"Hmm. Heavily armed robotic commandoes?"_

_"When aren't they heavily armed?"_

_If you get where that conversation is from, then... well, you're in for a treat if you like them!_

_~Michael, out~_


	10. Ch 9: A Lion's tale, and Another arrival

A Lion's story and Another arrival

Inside the giant lounge-room on top of the Royalhart building, some things had happened while Sly, Carmelita, Krystal and Falisa were having their comatose trip into the master thief's mind.

First of all, the rest of the different heroes' friends had returned from the dining hall, with Murray carrying some hamburgers along with him and Murphy flying with some soda bottles strapped to his belt while drinking a can of Coke on the way in, Diddy, Luigi and Globox carrying some sweets too. Cranky Kong came alongside Ben's uncle Albert, the old gorilla and fox babbling about various kinds of obscure formulas, experiments they'd both done, and other complicated stuff you needed to be an academic to understand.

Secondly, Ash had come with the idea that he and Misty should just let out all their Pokémon, thinking it would be no fair for their capsuled buddies if only Pikachu, Psyduck and Azurill were the only ones to get to see this new world.

The variety of creatures got a good deal of the other guys 'n gals a bit freaked out, but as soon they saw the Pokémon animals were just as good-natured and fun loving as some of themselves, they calmed down and began studying the new beings alongside each other.

Fox, Mario and Michael had a lot of fascination for the hulking Torterra, Fox because the giant turtle had looks kinda like some of the dinosaurs on planet Sauria, Mario because he found it nice to see this big tortoise was a gentle giant instead of a flame-breathing brute like Bowser. And Michael, well he was in awe at being able to actually touch a real-life version of the final evolution of Sinnoh's official grass-starter, the half-fox having a hard time to control his ecstasy.

Donkey Kong on his part found the fiery Infernape to be much fun too, the fire-monkey actually challenging the necktie-wearing gorilla to a match, and without even a stray flame spilling from his head, the two apes from different worlds made quite the show for the others. Falco and Murray actually made bets with each other about which one of them would win the fight, with Murphy putting in his own contribution by acting as a pro boxing-commentator.

Katt found the short Buizel to be of her liking, the little weasel-otter being just as tough a cookie as herself, as she experienced when the two of them had a round of arm-wrestling. Though the little guy was a Pokémon with the following powers and training under Ash's ownership, Katt hadn't been a lazy cat-girl in her free-time between the occasional pirate-hunting either, and after some tough five minutes, she got the half-weasel's arm laying flat on the board they sat at, the two of them laughing at the aftermath before they gave each other a hand-paw shake in respect of each other being great opponents.

* * *

In one part of the lounge area, there was a big swimming-pool, and it was there Misty let out all of her Pokémon, alongside Ash's Squirtle. Link and Zelda, Bentley and Penelope, Slippy and Amanda, Diddy and Dixie, Alexandra and Leomph were all standing around it looking at the different marine Pokémon, most prominently at the big Gyarados, being pretty intimidated by the monster.

Misty saw their looks and said, "Don't be afraid of Gyarados. He does looks like he's ready to rampage at a moment's notice, but he have learned to calm down when not in battle." "I hope for his own good he is," Link said wary, looking the giant water snake up and down, with Gyarados studying the green-clad knight too with its eyes in their constant frown, "Because if it tries something to threaten the princess, I'm not going to hold back my sword from it."

"Hey! He's not that bad," Misty said angry at him, "Or don't you trust my word for him?" "Sorry, Miss Waterflower," Link said with an apologetic face and a bow of his head, "I didn't mean to downgrade your skill as a trainer. I'm just worrying about Zelda's safety, that's all." "Oh. Well, I can understand that," Misty said back, glad to know the Hylian man wasn't serious about hurting her big pal.

"You don't have to worry that much about me, Link," Zelda said to her protector, "I am able to fend for myself if I need, you know." "I do know that, Zelda, I do," Link said to his princess, looking away from the younger girl and her creatures, "But I just don't want to see you hurt. You are, after all, the Princess of Hyrule, and I am your sworn guardian. If anyone tries something bad on you, I'll give them a painful reminder to not mess with a beautiful woman of royal blood."

"Oh, Link, you can be too serious sometimes, you know that?" Zelda told him, before a smile blossomed on her tender, but spirited face, "But you really know how to make me feel good too, what with telling me you care that much for me." "I'll always care for you, my Princess," Link said with a look of adoration for her, "Always."

"Aw, that's just SOOO cute," Dixie said at the scene between the knight and princess, "You should take notes, Didders, that green guy really can his pick-up lines." "Eww, Dixie," Diddy said, spitting out the banana he was currently eating, "You know I don't like to be compared to flirty people, that gives me the jeepers!" "But, I thought you wanted me to feel good around you," Dixie said with a little pout.

"Well, uh, yeah, I do, Dix, but, uh," Diddy said fumbling with his words, "Uh, that is, you are cuter and nicer than any monkey-girl I've ever met, but , oh man, do you have to hear me babble about how nice you look in all eternity or something? I'm not **that** good with mushy stuff, you know."

While the two small simians continued with their funny discussion about love and the like, Bentley was having a blast studying the swimming Squirtle. "I have to say, it really is funny looking at an otherworldly species that looks like he could be of a cousin breed of my kind," the wheelchair-riding, glassed tortoise mused while looking eye to eye with the blue-skinned turtle in the water.

"You're one to talk," Alexandra said to him, "How do you think I reacted when I first met Leomph?" Here she thumbed at the stone-cat who was looking idly at the Goldeen-fish and the Politoed-frog swimming under the water surface, a feral look in his face of a predator ready to pounce on its prey mixed with a look of fear for all of the H2O in front of him.

"Well, yeah, that must've been strange," Bentley said, looking from the anthro lioness to the feral stone-lion and back. "Tell me something, though," he then asked her, "Exactly how did you guys acquire him anyways?"

"Well," Alex started, "before dad began the construction of this building, he wanted proof that there were other inhabited worlds other than Earth, and he wanted to see it for himself. Kalasta was of course not one to back down from that challenge, and constructed a portal to a different dimension. The conjuring-spell was very exhausting to him, but he showed dad it was no trick he was trying to pull.

"Michael and Falisa were both eager to go into wherever the portal led, but Kalasta told us that it was not safe for us to do so alone. Therefore he and Albert along with some guards went alongside us and dad to explore this new reality, as Kalasta said that even though it was risky, it would be good for us to see just what we could possibly be up against in the future.

"To our surprise, we ended up in a place filled with lava-pits, withering trees and old fortresses all around, surrounded by murky lakes and eerie, dark mountains and volcanoes. It was first when we saw a docked ship with propellers instead of sails on its masts and a dragon/turtle-like galleon-head that Michael realized we were in the Dark Land."

"Dark Land?" Mario said, having heard the conversation Bentley and Alexandra had, "You mean to tell me you guys have a-been in Bowser's territory already?" "You better believe it," Michael quipped in, who had become more interested in the water-Pokémon and now stood besides the pool-front, "And man, was I thrilled at the aspect of kicking shell right then." "Excuse me!" Bentley said with a frown at the mutt. "Ops! Sorry 'bout the 'shell' part," Michael said apologetically to the shelled reptilian genius, "What I meant was of course kickin' 'Bad Koopa-turtle'-shell." "Okay then," Bentley said satisfied.

"Anyways," Alex continued, "While Michael here was exited at this, Falisa and dad wasn't too keen on being in a place filled with God-knows-how-many kinds of monsters and whatnot. Me, I was more interested in one particular castle that stood close by. It just kind of... called to me, I felt. I took hold of Benjamin and dragged him with me towards the place, with the others following as fast they noticed we were heading inside it.

"When we came out on the other side of the entrance, we saw a pit crafted into the ground, with several Koopa Troop soldiers standing around, some of the more elite knight-types known as Koopatrols standing by an old, blue-robed koopa wizard near the middle of the arena.

"He was in the process of getting control over a giant creature which was obscured from where we stood. But as we all stepped down closer, we saw it was a lion-like monster made completely out of stone and shackled to the ground by heavy chains. That was the first time we saw Leomph," Alex said, stopping to look at the same creature she talked about who were trying to paw at the goldfish-Pokémon like a big kitten.

"That must have been Kamek who had made him," Mario said as he looked at the Thwomp-faced feline, "Of all the magicians under Bowser's command, only he knows how to create a creature or transform one into something else that **radically**." "Yeah, but it seems he wasn't too lucky controlling Leomph though," Alexandra said with a depressed look, "He was trying to get control of his newest 'creation' as he called it, by blasting spells on him, making the stereotypical mistake to talk about his work as he tried to tame him by force.

"He said that he had travelled to Earth himself and looked around in Africa for animals he could use to create new war-monsters to fight you," Alex said and pointed at Mario with her left pointing-finger, "Saying that the ones on the DK isles were to daft to be of any use, and also because Donkey Kong and crew would notice if their animal friends became abducted." "He's always been a smart old man under those thick glasses," Mario said, having both scorn for the Magikoopa and a bit of respect as well for his sometimes brilliant mind.

"Yeah, well he just went on and on about his search," Alex said before she got a very serious and angry look on her face, "Until he said that when he had been unable to catch any useful animals for weeks, he had went incognito as a rich old man who wanted some new ferocious pets in his private zoo. It didn't take long for him to find some illegal poachers who met his demands, and they went out to capture a bunch of animals, including a flock of wild African lions!

"That really got to me and my father, finding out that this hunched old lizard had paid for the hunting of a family of wild lions, the very animals we were descended from! But what really ticked me off, was when that old turtle outright said that after two of the hybrid's _sisters_ had **died** in the process of earlier transformations, Leomph was the first _surviving_ merger between lions and Thwomps. And then, after the spells didn't stop his trashing, he threatened the poor guy to obey him or end up just like his siblings!" Here, Alexandra became really mad as she remembered how poorly Kamek had treated his creation. Mario, Bentley and the others could only stare as they processed this information.

"For the love of margarita," Mario said after a while, "I had no idea Kamek could be that rotten!" "Neither could we," Michael said sitting at the pool's edge, his shoes and socks resting besides him while he splashed his feet in the water, "But that only goes to show, you don't know someone just because you've seen them in public." "Huh? You mean you've seen him before?" Slippy asked from where he sat by the pool, with Amanda sitting besides him and trying to feed Politoed a piece of fruit, without the light-green Pokémon-amphibian swallowing her glove too.

"Kind of have, yes," Michael said with a mysterious smile, "But exactly how I've done that, I'm better of explaining later. You guys wouldn't understand just yet." "Not to brag, but I'm able to build different models of spaceships, make holographic disguises and more," Slippy said with a bit of pride, "And you tell me I wouldn't understand _you_?" "Not at all, Slippy," Michael said apologetically, "I'm just saying that all of you, our guests, need to hear in full explanation just how all of this makes sense. Now, how about we forget about that for now and listen to Alex' story about our meeting with Leomph?"

"Okay, I guess we'll just have to wait then," Slippy said a bit confused still, but concentrated on the young black-and-white-haired lioness, him too wanting to hear the end of their tale.

"Okay, well," Alexandra said picking up from where she left, "It was when he fired a really nasty-looking spell that I had it, and Michael was equally pissed for my sake too, as he sprinted alongside me down the stairs, then ran up and tackled that old mage." "Yeah, and darn how GOOD that felt!" Michael said, making a big splash with his left foot when he said "GOOD", making Squirtle and Goldeen swim away in fright, "He had it coming for doing something that downright evil to a threatened species. It's alright for me if he grows giant Piranha Plants, but painfully transforming a lion from flesh to stone? No way!"

"Anyways," Alexandra continued, "When Kamek got Michael off himself, he became really confused seeing us. Anatomically, we stood out like whales among squids, a bunch of upstanding mammals mostly, among shorter turtles and fungus." "Mostly?" Diddy asked. "Yeah, _mostly_," Alex said to the chimp, "Some of the guards with us were also reptiloids and avians." "As in crocodiles and other lizards, and birds of different kinds," Michael explained to the monkey who didn't quite understand the scientific names of the different animal families.

"Well, Kamek didn't waste too much time and ordered his men to catch us," Alex went on, "But he didn't count on me and Michael and the others giving them one heckuva fight." "Well, I have to admit something," Michael said in Mario's direction, "Those goombas were a bit hard to flatten for me, and the koopas were actually fast to run away from me when I tried to jump them." "Well, it wasn't that easy for me the first time either, paisano," Mario said to the mutt, actually awed that the young wolf-man had went up against Kamek and his cohorts himself.

"Yeah, but still, you really kicked their asses then," Alexandra said to Michael, smiling at her friend with admiration for his willingness to stop evil. "Of course, I didn't just stand idly by either." "No, what with how both you and Falisa snatched up some of the Hammer Bros.' thrown hammers and hurled them right back at their owners!" Michael said with a laugh remembering the looks on the hammer-toting turtles' faces when they saw their ammo coming back at them with great velocity. "Good thing it wasn't boomerangs, though, or you could've been going on for hours." "Quiet, you," Alexandra said with a smirk.

"What really amazed me, though," she continued, "Was how that turtle-mage's magic powers were so equally matched with Kalasta's when they fought." "Humph," they heard from over by one of the tables standing close to the water, "He was just lucky that portal-spell drained me of most of my powers." Here everyone by the pool looked at Kalasta who sat besides the pool in a meditative position, his walking cane and a bottle of some strange liquid on his right. "That imbecilic youngster," the canine druid said under his beard, "He has only lived to be well over four hundred years, and he thinks that is **enough** to become all-knowing in terms of spell-casting? HA! What a cad."

"Uh, and exactly how old are you, then?" Bentley asked him. "Oh, I lost count after I reached past a millennium," Kalasta said tiredly, "But I remember that I was born sometime before 900 A.D." "Well, that is quite a while considering now it's year **2011 A.D.**," Michael said. "Whoa!" Mario, Link, Bentley, Slippy and Diddy all said simultaneously at the revelation of his age. "Well, do not tell me my wrinkles are that unnoticeable," Kalasta said, looking at his right hand with a look of self-pity, "Because I can see them as clear as I can see you younglings in front of me."

"Yeah, well," Alexandra began again, all eyes turning back to her, "It didn't take long before Kamek ordered his guys to let loose "the _**stupid**_ Thwomp-Lion" on us." Here she got an edgy look on her eyes, then a sadder one as she stroke her hand over the back of the now attentive Leomph who laid down on the floor, giving her big unnatural pet a smile which was returned with a content growl. "I didn't want to fight against him for two reasons; one, because even though he now was a rock-monster, Leomph was still a lion; two, well, because he was hard as a rock." At this, Alex couldn't help but laugh a little at the description she gave him, as it was both fitting and funny at once considering he was, literally, a walking _rock_.

"Oh and man, was I scared when Leomph began raging about when he was let loose from his restraints," she went on, "He attacked both us and the Koopas without remorse. We just barely got away with some scrapes." "And some of those goombas he didn't flatten, he ate instead, "Michael said, remembering the not-so-nice scene of shredded goomba-parts and some crushed turtle-shells (one even with a dead koopa inside!), "I'm just glad those fungi don't have that much blood, otherwise I think I would puked then and there, it was _this_ **close** to a veritable blood-bath."

"Well, dad wouldn't have any more of that," Alexandra said to her listeners, "And so he got the guards to blast him with some of their experimental weapons that Albert had outfitted them with beforehand." "I think you guys are pretty thankful still of those ingenious modifications I added to their guns, right?" Albert quipped in merrily from where he sat on a chair right next to Kalasta, both Julius and Benjamin sitting opposite of him, each with a coffee cup in front of him.

"Oh yeah, uncle, you nailed it," Benjamin said with a light chuckle to his father's older brother, "Those mods were _ingenious_, alright." "What? What did they do?" Slippy asked, really interested in hearing what kind of weaponry could stop even a stone-lion in its tracks.

"Well, to say it as simple as I can," Albert said to the crowd, "I had modified some M16 rifles and Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine guns with special cartridge-modificators that, when activated, changed the molecular state of the projectiles into one of several different universal base-elements, making it possible for the wielder to damage any being in existence of any kind of matter." "Wow," Both Slippy and Bentley said in awe at the professor's ingenious mind.

"Uh, could someone translate that to an _understandable _language?" Link asked with a dumb look, with most of the guys and girls around looking equally confused by the difficult words. "Sure," Michael said to him, "It's as easy as this: Albert had put some transformation-thingamajigs on some guns that, when activated, turns the bullets inside the cartridges ("the packs holding the bullets onto the gun," he explained to the pre-firearms-era warrior) from plain metal and gun-powder into different elements of nature, such as water, fire, electricity, you name it, they does it."

"Again with the big words, Uncle _Einstein_," Ben said hopelessly to his uncle, using the nickname Albert had acquired for being a professor with a high intelligence level and first name similar to the worldwide-known great thinker. "Heh. You know when it comes to my work, I can't help it with the detailed descriptioning," Albert just chuckled. "Mama Mia, you would have been a perfect partner for professor Gadd back home," Mario said to him. "Egads, you're right," Michael said in the Italian plumber's direction, both human and wolf-fox laughing at the inside joke of his.

"Seriously, the faster we find out about why we're here, the faster I'll understand their bond," Bentley said grumpily, the turtle being pretty agitated at the thought of the M-twosome, being that even though they had only met today, they treated each other like they were buddies from the start. '_There's some fishy business going on here,'_ the spectacled reptile thought.

"Eh hem, you guys wanna hear the last part or not?" Alexandra said to the persons around her. As the others focused on her again, she continued. "As I was saying, dad got the guards to shot at Leomph with their new guns modified by Albert. Back then, the guns had only some one-two custom element-options each as they were experimental, therefore the guards had to work together to get maximum use of the weapons.

"But it still worked. First, two of them shot at Leomph with water bullets." "Wait, so they literally shot at him with water guns?" Diddy said at her, followed by a good old monkey-laugh from the long-tailed chimp. "Yes, they actually did," Alex said with a smile herself, "Only these 'elemental'-bullets works in the way that when they impact, they spread their element all over the target, like a ball smeared with oil that's suddenly lit on fire." "Ugh, that sounds painful," Diddy said, gaining new respect for the prowess of the old fox.

"Well, it's only hurting you if it's an element that's normally painful to you," Benjamin said, sipping some coffee before continuing, "And just as Uncle had predicted, the 'Pokémon type'-theory seems to be universal." "'Pokémon type'_-theory?"_ Misty said quizzaly, as she fed her Azurill a strawberry. "Yeah, it's a theory that, just like Pokémon in general, all kinds of creatures have their elemental strengths and weaknesses," Ben elaborated, "Such as a Piranha Plant, being a plant-based monster, is **really** weak to fire and ice, or a Gibdo, an undead mummy conjured by dark arts, having a big disadvantage against fire, light and healing magic." "Or a rock-monster like a Geodude," Alex said, "Being no good against water-attacks.

"As I said, first two of them shot Leomph with water bullets, then a third of our guards shot an electric bullet at him-" "-Which in combination shocked him!" Misty said as she figured out the outcome by herself, "Whoa, that's exactly the same strategy Ash came up with on the fly when he battled Brock's Onix on his rematch against him."

"Well, what do you know?" Michael said with a sly smile, "Seems like we copied his style then. Heh, what a coincidence." "Yeah, like **now** you suddenly_ remembered_ **that **particular episode," Alexandra said smugly to him, "You, who knows over half of the series by your heart-" "Yeah, yeah, yeah, not _**now**__, Cruella,_" Michael said with a huff to his friend, using the one nickname Alex hated the most. "You know it's only the hair on my head that make me resemble that old **witch!**" she said with a frown as she pointed at her head. "Well, Exuuuuse me, _Princess,"_ Michael said with his best imitation of that particular line, one that both the dark-blonde-haired Link and the blonde/orange-haired Zelda couldn't help but feel like they should have heard those same words sometime before...

"Anyway," Alex continued, tired of all the abruptions, "After the electric shock hit him, Leomph went unconscious. The double layer of two rounds of water bullets around him had doubled the effect of the electricity, so that's why he went down for the count so fast. That's also why he's not too keen about water now," she said and patted the big lump of a cat besides her who looked at the water with some fear evident in his dark-red eyes.

"Well, Kamek was really mad as his "creation" had failed so fast," she went on again, "But before he got the chance to say another insult at him, I clobbered him with one of the remaining hammers lying around. That's when he went comatose. There were still some other Koopa Troop soldiers around, but as soon as they saw their leader had fainted, they ran away like scared mice. Uh, nothing personal," she quickly added to Penelope who had seated herself in a chair besides Bentley. "No harm done, Miss Royalhart," the young mouse-woman said to the younger big-cat girl.

"After the last Koopa soldier had run out the entrance," Alex continued again, "Dad said he had more than enough proof from this experience to see Kalasta's powers and predictions were real, and he wanted nothing more than to get us all back home safely. We all agreed on that, but I didn't want to leave poor Leomph there. I told dad that it wouldn't be right if we let a fellow lion be left in a world were he would be treated like a beast and die under a tyrant's rule."

"Or die because of me," Mario said in a small tone, looking at the living feline-statue with remorse. "If Bowser had sent him against me, I would-a perhaps have found some way to defeat him. Though I doubt I could smash him as a-easily as the Whomp King." "Knowing you, I'd bet you would put a couple of Bob-Ombs down his throat or something," Michael said matter-of-factly, "But yeah, either he'd get turned to rubble by that, or Bowser would have him turned into his personal bedroom-fireplace or the like if he failed."

"Mama Mia, what a fate," Mario said at the thought of the actually friendly Thwomp/lion-mix being killed and turned into something stupid like that. (Stupid as in a _fireplace_ for a fire-breathing individual who lived in a castle surrounded by and filled with **lava!**)

"I'm just glad daddy agreed with me and got all the guards to help bring him back with us," Alexandra said with a content look at her father. "Yeah, well I did get moved by the way my little Ally told me the poor chap's fate," Julius told the listeners, "I was still wary of him, but Kalasta told me that if we took him with us, he would personally see to it that the rock-hard fellow got some manners knocked into his thick skull."

The old British-descended bureau-cat could only smile at Leomph when he said that. "But I'm glad that in the end, he ended up the way he is now, a perfect pet for my perfect daughter." "Oh, dad," Alex said with a blush. "You know he's only stating the truth, kitty," Benjamin told her with a smile of his own. "You shut it, ya foxy bookworm," Alexandra said with rosy cheeks to her boyfriend, "No nickname calling from you unless in private!" "Aw, and where's the fun in that?" the glassed vulpine said to her.

"Man, and I thought Sly had the copyright for that suave voice," Bentley said from his position, "Now both this four-eyed fox and this wild-mutt guy have to go and emulate him too? Geez!" "Ya know, I think it's cute," Penelope said as she looked at the fox and lioness banter, "It was kind of what made me first fall for Sly." "Do I have to save you from another pirate again to win your heart back?" Bentley said in a part annoyed, part flirty manner. "Oh, you poor IQ-ed turtle, you," Penelope said before she placed her lips on his right cheek, "LeFwee was enough for me to open my eyes, and you got the privilege to be my eye-opener... literally."

* * *

As the gang by the pool went on with their conversations, Rayman and Ly had walked out on the balcony along with Abigail to get some fresh air, and subsequently see how the foursome out there was doing.

Still after an hour, neither one of them seemed to be close to waking up, which kind of scared Abigail. "I just hope they haven't been locked in some everlasting coma or something," the young raccoon-girl said as she looked at Falisa with a worried face.

"Do not worry, my dear Abby," Ly said to her with a reassuring smile, "They're just having such a good time in his mind." "His mind?" Rayman said puzzled. "Yes, his mind," Ly said, pointing at Sly who had a smile on his lips, as well as stains of tears from his eyes, "I can see clearly that both Sly and Carmelita seems to be very content in their shared subconsciousness, and both Krystal and young Falisa seems to be really liking the memories he shares with them too."

"Whoa, memory-sharing?" Rayman said in awe, "That's not an easy feat, isn't it Ly?" "Not too much of a feat if ones telepathic powers are strong enough," Ly answered for her limbless friend, "Though with how the two of them combined their powers to do this, not even I can break through their mind barrier and wake them up." At this she looked at Falisa and Krystal with a slight frown on her features.

"Oh man," Abigail said at the hopelessness, "If they don't wake up soon, I don't wanna be the one to break the news to Michael." "Couldn't we just shake' em to wake' em?" Rayman said, ready to go and give Sly a good shove. "No! We can't do that," Ly said hurriedly to him, "If we try to force them out of their coma, there's no telling what the consequences would be." "Consequences? As in..?" Rayman said wondering. "As in a psychological trauma," Ly said with a sad expression, "Seeing as their minds now rest in one, the girls could actually be locked in Sly's mind, and then he would become severely stressed and confused because of it, and they would perhaps not be able to connect with their real selves."

At this information, Rayman scooted ten feet away from Sly and the rest. "Bugger," he said, "I couldn't do that to them." "Well, nice knowing how NOT to wake them," Abigail said, "But what options do we have, then? Michael's expecting the last party to be here any minute, and-" "Whoa, whoa, wait!" Rayman stopped her, "Did you say _**"last party"**_? I thought everyone needed was already here." "Well," Abigail said with a light smile, "There's one last group of heroes that's coming here in another way than you guys." "Oh? But where from?" Rayman asked perplexed.

Just as Abigail was about to answer, a voice shouted to them, "Abby, Ray, Ly, get in here! We've got word from Robin downstairs that our final guests are here! Come on, we're gonna go meet them!" As they turned, they saw Alexandra waving them over from the balcony door. As they looked back to the raccoon, two vixens and the half-lynx, they decided they could figure out their waking later, before making their way inside.

Rushing over to her, Rayman asked his question to Alexandra instead, "Who are those last party members, and where are they from?" "Oh, wait and see, Rayman, wait and see," Alex answered mysteriously as she rushed after Michael who was in the lead of the group down the hallways going deeper into the complex.

* * *

Donkey Kong and Fox ran just behind the half-wolf, and they had asked him the same question. "And one more thing," DK continued a little angrily, "Why didn't you build a portal for them to fall through, too?" "Well, Kalasta figured out there was no need to make a portal for someone who would come willingly," Michael answered for the big ape who, now having a confused look, made the half-fox elaborate, "You see, the guys who are coming now, are well known back in their part of the Universe to be on the spot if called for help. And it just so happens that one of their friends who's coming with them, is the guy responsible for the advanced technology crafted in this place to make the portals work in the first place."

"Wait. You mean to tell me your engineers didn't build these portals without some help from another Galaxy?" Fox said surprised at the revelation. "Well, we Terran folks aren't that tech-savvy yet, I'm afraid," Michael said as he continued to sprint down the corridor, "Unlike you Lylatians, the closest Earth-people have come to manned space travel, are our moon and a couple of space-stations satelliting close to our planet.

"It's not like we can't get further out or something," the mutt went on, "It's just that our world is sadly filled with so much poverty, corruption, religious unrest and rogue wars, our politicians don't have time to finance the space programs as would be needed for us to get out of our own planetary system before well over some hundred years, at the best."

"Holy Goddess," Fox said at the information, "That really sucks." "Yeah," Michael said, "So the closest we normally ever get to space are in fantasy and video-games." "Flipping frogs, you guys really need an alien invasion or something to boost that space-thingy," Donkey Kong said. "And get many innocent lives killed in the process? I'd rather not!" Michael said with an angry look at the gorilla, "We've had enough of that shit with our stupid wars here on Earth already. It's not right if we should suddenly sacrifice over a billion people just so the next generation would fly freely in space."

"I have a feeling that you would make a great leader in this world, my friend," Fox said to him with respect for the young dog's resolve to keep his people out of harms' way. "Thanks for the compliment," Michael said to the mercenary, "But right now let's get to our last guests who'll be a big help against some evil-doers that makes some of our world's most despised war-criminals look like common burglars in comparison." And with that, he boosted himself down the corridor, all the others following suit.

* * *

When Michael stopped, he was in front of some big doors with a sign over them reading _'Docking Bay'_. As the others reached him, the doors opened and a tiger stepped out. He was clad in a light armor like a middle-ranking soldier, but his arms and head was uncovered, letting you see his fur was colored light brown with dark-red stripes instead of a common tiger's orange with black stripes-coloration, but he retained the white from his jaw and down like all of his kind. He was tall, pretty fit, and with some goodlooking biceps on his arms, evidently from long hours training with weights.

When Abigail came through, she ran up to him and gave him a hug around his waist, as he was too tall for her to put her arms around his neck unless she jumped up on him. "Hi there, gorgeous," he said down to her. "Hi, Robin," she said to the tiger she embraced, "Sorry I'm late." "You're never too late, my masked princess," he said to the smaller woman, returning the hug as softly as he could. After hugging for some ten seconds, they parted and Robin looked at Julius who just came walking in after the others. "The last of the extraterrestrial parties are here, Sir," he said to the older lion, "They arrived at exactly 1615 hours."

"Very good, Private Porter," mister Royalhart told the tiger, "I hope there wasn't anyone from NASA who spotted their descent?" "No, Sir," Robin answered his superior, "From what our men on the inside have gathered, the lightshow-phenomena caused by Miss Gaup and the blue-furred vixen messed up their satellite-readings too much for them to make sense of the situation. Luckily, they think it's just some stray radioactive space dust that caused the temporal disabling of their cameras."

"What? They had to sneak in?" Fox asked from where he stood. "Well, travelers from outer space are **not** something you see around here every day, mister," the tiger said to Fox, "That would become quite the fuzz. But, uh, who are you again?" "Oh, great, now I have to do all the introductions all over again," Michael said with a palm to his face, "Next time, Robbie, you're attending the full welcoming party with us." "Suits me just fine, Mikey," Robin said to the mixed mutt.

"Alright, Fox, meet Robin Porter, part-time guard here at Royalhart Inc. and Abigail's partner in love and sports," Michael said to the mercenary leader, before looking in Robin's direction, "And Robbie, this is Fox McCloud. Yes, THE Fox McCloud," he said with a smug smile to the now slightly slackjawed cat, "The leader of Star Fox and savior of the Lylat System."

"Whoa, like, seriously?" Robin said in awe as he looked at the vulpine commando/pilot. "Yes, seriously," Michael said, "But ask for his autograph **after** I've explained everything for all of them." "Oh...okay," Robin said a bit speechless'd, looking at the other people with them also, "Whoa, that's quite the crowd you've gathered here."

"Yeah, and it's about to get bigger," Michael said as he looked at the gate behind the tiger, "I'll introduce you to them all later, but right now, could you be so kind as to escort us to our latest batch of guests?" "Well of course, _mister Arnesen,"_ Robin said to him with a mock bow, opened the doors and let them trough.

The others became shocked when they saw the size of the bay, as it easily took up the space of 1/2 of the giant building. In contrast, the docking bay was large enough to place three average overseas-tankers side by side in there, or as R.O.B. calculated, eight spaceships the size of either the Great Fox I and II, and there would still be space for more!

One third of the hall was connected to the sea outside by a large gate that was locked at the moment, and you could see about a dozen small boats and two yachts as well as some Navy-type Cruisers docked by the port.

The most of the bay was pretty empty besides some planes and cars of different designs parked in the right part of the hall from the water, but right in front of them, to the port's left, they saw a squad of guards standing by some peculiar-looking vehicles that didn't look like normal aircraft by American, and frankly, Earth standards at all.

And by the sound of it, they had their hands full with the newly arrived party.

* * *

As they stepped closer, they heard talking between the guards and the foreign individuals.

"Now I told ya whippersnappers to get your hands of my goldurn gun," they suddenly heard an old man's voice call out. "Well, sorry mister "armed-and-dangerous" robot," one of the guards said, "but we're only doing this for safety measures-" "Pah! "Safety measures", my circuits!" another old man said with a loud voice, "Back in my day, the only safety measures needed was a good old whopping on the enemies! Why, I remember back in the battle of Luxun 3 in the second revolution after the Craggymite Empire's fall, I whopped a gang of Agorians so bad, they-" "Cronk, not now!" they now heard a young woman say to the old-sounding male.

"Seriously Talwyn," a young male said to the girl's voice, "Are you sure they don't have an 'off'-button?" "We weren't built with one, rookie," the first old voice said to the young man, "We are modified to never quit our duty before we're run out of juice, or get defeated in the line of duty."

"No need to be so melodramatic, Lieutenant Zephyr," a boasting voice belonging to a man in his forties said all of a sudden, "With me around, you all could just kick back, relax, have a long-drink and watch as my partner does the dirty job." "Qwark, you are **this** close from getting a Negotiator rocket up your ass, you know?" the young man said with a mocking threat to the brash man. "Be nice to him, little fella," another middle-aged voice said to him, "The Captain's only venting air as usual."

"Please, kind Sirs and Madam," one of the soldiers said to the concealed aliens, "If you would please come peacefully, it'd be-" "It would be no fun," Michael said as he stood in front of the guards who had their backs turned to them, "It's okay, Private, we'll take it from here. You guys are dismissed." "Sir, yes, sir!" all of the troops around said in military fashion, and walked away from the people in front of the spacecrafts.

The others in Michael's group were pretty baffled at the gang that stood in front of them. Two of them were a couple of robots, kind of like R.O.B., but they looked more built for combat than for ship maintenance. One of them had a brown coloration and a long face with a light-blue scanner for eyesight on the front and a black rubber under-lip, while the other one was more blue with a head like a bell-shaped helmet with a red optical horizontal lens and a mouth built with a tooth-like under-jaw, both of them holding some funny guns in their three-fingered steel-hands.

To their right, there stood a big man (over 10 feet tall!) with a chest and arms ripe with muscles, and some comically short legs, dressed up in a suit consisting of much green and some black and grey that made him look just like a superhero from a comic book, wearing a green mask over his head that didn't go over his mouth and big double-chin, a funny antenna sticking up on the top of his head-mask, and a comical gun strapped on his belt. On his suit's chest, there was a symbol of a blue atom with a yellow thunderbolt shooting from it, looking like a stylized 'Q'.

Also of note was even though he had a kinda human-like look and skin, he had only three fingers on each gloved hand.

In front of him stood a much younger and shorter woman, apparently in her beginning twenties, dressed in a green sweater, dark-brown pants and gloves, with a small gun strapped to her belt, and a red hair-band tied over her brow to keep her half-long hair from hiding her pretty face.

Now you could almost say she was human, as she had a young woman's build and looks, along with five fingers on her hands instead of just three like most of the other men around her, but some features gave her away as an alien. First of all was her long, thin, naked pink tail that ended in a small, slightly spear-like outgrowth. Second were her ears that were long and pointy kinda like Hylian ones, giving her an elf-like look. And finally, she had a light-purple/pink skin-pigmentation, with some darker purple spots here and there on her face.

Besides her, there stood a slightly shorter guy, but he seemed to be about the same age as her. He was very different from her too, as he had a face that looked like it was 3/4 cat and 1/4 dog, and he had yellow fur with brown stripes visible on his cheek and long ears. And about his ears, they looked a bit unnatural by Earth standards, as they were feline-like, but flat and without visible ear-holes. He also had a long thin tail coated in yellow fur with a bushy tip with brown stripes on the end.

He was dressed in an orange/brown shirt, a backpack-like strap around his shoulders adorned with a light-green plate with yellow outlines, brown 5-fingered gloves with long sleeves(with a peculiarly big wrench in his left hand), a pair of green pants, held up with a belt with an arrow-shaped beltbuckle pointing down, done in light-green with a yellow rim, and normal brown boots.

Between the two of them there stood yet another robot, although this one was no taller than about 2 feet and some inches. He was a silver grey, with black-painted limbs, his three fingers on both his big hands included. On his chest there was a ventilation lock for cooling his complex machinery. His head was shaped like a ball, with his mouth taking up the lower third of his face-part, with two big, light-green, perfectly round optical lenses for eyes, and a small antenna with a red light-bulb in the end on top of his head.

Behind the furry guy, there stood a rather big man (though not just as big as the green-clad macho-man) who were a more portly guy than most of the others. He had deep-blue skin with small spikes on his shoulder-blades and on top of his head, and a nice-looking beard growing around his mouth. On the bridge of his nose, he wore some simple glasses. He was dressed in a white shirt, with orange pants held up with straps over his shoulders, with some keys and some other tools hanging on his belt, and big brown boots. He too had three-fingered hands.

With his clothing, you could easily tell that he had the same job as Mario was dressed for: being a plumber.

On his left stood a younger, but about same-sized, guy with just as peculiar looks as the rest of them. His skin was a light-yellow, and he had a pretty big chin just like the comic-hero-like man, only this guy's was flabbier than macho you could say. He had red spiky hair that were held up by a metallic headband with a lens attached to it, like one of those clockmakers use when fixing intricate workings with very small parts. He was dressed in a white lab-coat, with a shirt underneath that didn't quite hide his rather big belly, and fitting jeans and shoes. What made him stand out, though, were his right arm and the upper-right part of his face: they were mechanical.

Other than that, his whole appearance simply yelled one thing: geek.

* * *

_AN: Oh, new guys coming through._

_A highfive to anyone reading this who gets who the latest addition to the story are._


	11. Ch 10: Solana mindplumbing service

_Okay, a new chapter for you to enjoy. A bit shorter than the previous ones, but it'll suffice._

_Oh, and here's a message to mr/mrs. anonymous reviewer 64: I only write this for entertainment. Any politically wrong grammar is none of my concern._

_And also, I have no intentions of putting in any more game-series into this story. It's complex enough with EIGHT different ones, alongside my own characters. If you want a story with Jak and Daxter and/or Phoenix Wright, or any other franchises you like, in the mix, WRITE IT YOURSELF! (Sorry, had to say it to someone at some point.)_

_Well, enough of my babbling, and On with the Show!_

_Edit: Made the chapter a bit cleaner, and added A4O info._

* * *

Solana mind-plumbing service

After getting some looks from their audience, the young yellow-furred guy with the wrench talked. "Okay, I'm getting pretty freaked out by your staring at us," he said to Michael and the others, "Are we that ugly, or something?"

"I'm really sorry about my other companions, my dear friend," Michael said to him, "They just haven't seen cranky old war-robots before, or a lombax for that matter."

"No wonder, then," the furry guy with the wrench said, "Seeing as I'm about the last lombax in the universe, that makes sense."

"The last what-did-he-say?" DK asked befuddled.

"Lombax," Michael answered the gorilla, "An advanced race from the planet Fastoon in the Polaris Galaxy, known for their mechanical- and inventive skills."

"Is it perhaps he who's the one behind the portals you have here?" Fox asked him.

"Nope, not by a long shot, Fox," Michael said to the mercenary leader, before he pointed at the blue man with the beard, "It's him."

"Him?" Mario said, "But, he looks like he's a plumber."

"You're one to talk," the blue man said, "You dress up almost the same like me. But yeah, I'm the one who gave these furred guys a helping hand with the fancy transporters you lot probably experienced travelling through to this here planet," he said as he looked at the different people gathered behind Michael. "The name's Pommel Clogsbury by the way, but everybody knows me as 'the Plumber' back home. You guys can just call me 'Plum' if you want."

"Pommel Clogsbury? Seriously?" the young lombax said with a snort, "That's your **name**? No wonder you never introduced yourself to us!"

"I prefer to keep some of my personal information my own business," the alien plumber said a bit purple on his cheeks, before he hurriedly continued, "But enough about me! It's you who they've been waiting for. You're the hero here."

"Hey! What about me?" the big man clad in green and grey latex said a bit angrily, "I'm the **super-**hero of us, you know!"

"Of course he are," Michael said to the blue-skinned man. "Mind your words, 'Plum'. Don't forget your fellow travelers. **Especially** the one and only Captain Copernicus Qwark."

"Ah, it's good to hear **some** people have heard about my heroic deeds forehand here," the superhero-dressed man said with a smile.

"Of course I've heard about your deeds," Michael said smugly to the man called Qwark, "Although, 'heroic' is a bit of a deviation off the course your actions did to your residential galaxies at large."

"Uh, wha-what do you mean?" Qwark said taken a bit off guard.

"The '_Protopet-Disaster'_," was all the half-wolf said, at which the superhero-man got a shocked expression and a slack jaw, followed by a deep red, embarrassed blush.

"Well, well," the young furry one known as a lombax said while he looked up at the 'Captain' with a smug smile of his own, "It looks like they've heard about your blunders on this far-off planet too, Qwark."

"Oh, shut up," Qwark said with a 'deflated ego'-tone, "Enough about me now, then. You're the one in the spotlight."

"Alright, then," the lombax said and turned to their 'audience', "I'm Ratchet, pleased to meet you guys. And this," he said, pointing to the small robot who stood at his right, "is my best buddy, Clank."

"Good evening, everyone," the little android said to them with a polite voice.

"Captain Copernicus L. Qwark, Galactic President of Polaris, actor and superhero here," the big man said with a slightly boasting tone.

"Big Al here, robot fixer, holo-game master Extraordinaire, and senior member of the 'Q-force'!" the fat nerd by his side told them with a nasal voice, kinda like Bentley's, only more confident and bigger-sounding.

"I've already been introduced, so no need for me to talk," the Plumber, (nicknamed Plum in this story, mind you!) said plainly.

"But you just did talk," Qwark said to him, getting a strange look back from the alien pipe-fixer.

"I'm Talwyn Apogee, nice to meet you fellers," the young girl with the long tail and ears said with a wave of her hand.

"Lieutenant Commander Zephyr-" "-and Chief Admiral Cronk-" ""-At your service!"" the two old-sounding soldier-robots told them with authority.

"And I'm Michael," the wolf-fox said to them in greeting, "And I have to bid you and your friends welcome to Earth. We've been looking forward to meet you guys for quite some time."

"Well, I look forward to getting to know our purpose here," Clank said to the wolf-fox with a polite smile, "It must be important if you sent word for us all the way out here."

"It is, my metallic friend," Michael told the short bot, "But the explanation, briefing and all that will all come in good _time_."

"Hey, 'Michelangelo'," Mario said from where he stood, "Aren't you a-gonna tell us their story like you did with us?"

"Of course I'm gonna do that," Michael said to the human plumber with the red cap before he took a sweeping look over the crowd, "It's just that I think we're a bit short on listeners right now. Where are Falisa, Krystal, Sly and Carmelita?"

"Um, yeah, about them," Abigail said from besides Robin, "They're not quite..."

""Not quite..." What? I don't like that tone," Michael said with a slight frown to the blue-haired raccoon girl.

"They're still in a trance," Abigail blurted out softly.

"What? Still?" the half-fox yelped with a look of anger and concern, before he ranted to no one in particular, "I thought I told her she should be done by the time Carm had been convinced of Sly's real intentions!"

"Don't blame poor Abigail for this," Ly said in the younger woman's defense, "I took a peek into their shared mindset, and they were having a really good time in there looking at Sly's past experiences."

"Sorry," Michael said to the fairy and the raccoon-girl, his ears down in apology, "I'm just concerned, that's all. Falisa's not supposed to be using her powers for so long, it'll wear her out."

"I thought you said her and Alexandra here had been training magic for some five years," Link said to Benjamin.

"Yeah, that's correct," Ben said, taking of his glasses to shine them, "But even though they've trained that long, they are not that able with power-draining spells. Just ask Kalasta here," at this, he pointed to the mage who was looking the two war-bots up and down.

"That is too right, young masters Turner and Link," Kalasta said to the twosome, "They are prominent within the magic arts, but at this stage in their lives, they tire out easily if they spend too much of their fresh, mystical energies at once. Given some two or three powerful spells, or a long period of time spending on hexes and such, they can become quite exhausted," he ended gravely.

"Well, that sounds... bad," the long-eared swordsman said with a slight look of concern for the cat-girl himself.

"Uh, what are you folks talking about?" the young lombax, Ratchet, asked confused, "Shared memories? Magic? Guys, not to be rude, but what the heck's going on here?"

"Oh, sorry about all this," Alexandra apologized to him, "It's just that a friend of mine, Falisa, hasn't finished with a certain 'personal matter', is all."

"Is there anything we can do?" the young girl Talwyn, standing by the lombax, asked, "Maybe we could help?"

"That's really nice of you to volunteer, girl," Alex said to her," But this is a problem that only someone who can travel to the inner minds of people can solve."

"The inner mind?" Clank said contemplatingly. "Hmm."Then he looked at the blue plumber, and the little red light-bulb sticking out of his head lit up. "Mister Clogsbury," he said to the portly blue man, "I recall it you have the ability to travel to the unconsciousness of individuals."

"I recall I told you guys to call me 'Plum'," the alien plumber said with a tinge of purple yet again on his cheeks, before he caught on to what the robot said to him, "But yeah, I've got the 'means' to do that, yep."

"Did you say you can help us?" Michael said to the plump man.

"Well yes, I did," Plum said back, "Though you fellers have to pinpoint me to the problem. I can't unclog their state of mind if I don't know who they are."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Michael said happily, "Let's get back up and get this show rolling!"

"Are you telling us we've got to walk all the way up again?" Luigi said with a tired look, "Mama Mia, this is a-gonna be some walk."

"Yeah, this place got some of the longest corridors I've ever seen," Ash said in approval to the leaner green Mario-brother. The rest of the gang nodded in response.

"Not if I have something in the say," Alexandra said to the crowd, "Just gather around me and we'll be up again in no time."

"You don't mean, by teleportation?" Benjamin asked her concerned.

"Don't worry, brainy boy," she said sweetly to the young glassed fox, "I've got that spell perfectly memorized and executed beforehand without failure."

"Yeah, but such a huge crowd of people? Won't that be too much for you?" Ben asked her worriedly.

"Don't worry, alright? I can manage, right, druid?" the young lioness told her boyfriend before she looked at the old wizard.

"Hm. Alright, Mistress Alexandra, you have my permission," Kalasta said to her. "But," he added, "If the spell gets too tough because of the amount of beings in need of transportation, I shall contribute with my own powers."

"Thanks, Kal, you're a real peach," Alex said to her magic arts' teacher.

When everyone was gathered around her, Alex began on the chant used to engage the teleportation-spell. While she was busy doing that, Michael nudged Plum to make him look at him.

"I've got a 'little' request," he told the plumber.

"Yes?"

"Well, I was wondering, that method you use to go into peoples minds to fix them, could maybe I come along inside with you?"

"Huh? And what in the cosmos would you want in there?" Plum asked the young part-vulpine.

"I just want to see for myself how the inner mind looks like," Michael answered him, "And also, I want to surprise my girlfriend with a little something."

"You mean that kitty-girl of yours, eh?" the plumber said suggestively.

"Yeah, though not anything naughty, if you think I was gonna do that," Michael told him with a disapproving look.

"Oh, alrighty then," Plum said, "Well, I've never tried that darn contraption with a second driver, but I think we'll be able to."

"Cool. I only have _one_ more question," Michael said to the man, "Can I stand in a certain position when we 'head into their heads'?"

"Heh, well," the plumber said humored by the head-pun, "It could be done, but what do ya have in mind?"

"Well," Michael began, just before the two and everyone around them became enveloped in a magical light.

When the lightshow dissipated, the remaining guards inside the hangar were greeted with an empty spot where the crowd stood before.

One of them said a bit nervously to his partner, "Man, no matter how many times I see those girls and that crusty old man do these magic tricks, I never get used to them."

"You and me both, Jack," the other soldier said in return, before they continued their patrol.

* * *

Meanwhile inside the limbo that was Sly Cooper's citadel of memories, the master thief was busy showing his lovely Latin partner and the two psychic-adepts another of his past experiences.

"_...And that was when Tsao's dragon had enough and released Penelope,"_ he reminisced as the three girls saw him give the finishing blow to a giant, red, Chinese dragon that used to be a statue in the malevolent general's treasury. _"And here,_" he continued as he made the image in the memory-orb change at his will, _"Me and the rest of the gang is watching as you, gorgeous, escort mister 'Big-Cock' to the convict's entrance on the Interpol-helicopter, live on television."_

"_Oh my, I hadn't any idea I looked so, well, __**nice**__, in that dress,"_ Carmelita thought with a blush as she saw herself on the TV-screen inside the orb.

_"Yeah, no wonder that stupid rooster completely didn't notice your __**tail**__ sticking out in the rear,"_ Falisa thought with a smirk, _"He was too occupied looking at his supposed 'bride-to-be'."_

_"Well, I can tell you girls that Carmelita most certainly gave him an __**electrifying**__ 'wedding-kiss' he'll never forget,"_ Sly thought to them, making all four of them laugh at the mental image of what Sly was hinting at.

"_Well, good riddance to bad rubbish, I say,"_ Krystal thought as she looked scornfully at the fried rooster-man walking into the prisoners' hold of the helicopter,_ "I can't believe he had such a lowdown treatment of women. Panther was never anything close to that stuck-up cock. A little unnervingly stalking, maybe, but he never __**forced**__ any girl into something."_

_"Well, there's a big difference between a ladies man and a brutal tyrant,"_ Falisa thought to her, _"And that Tsao dude, well, he just REEKS of brutality!"_

"_And to think you went up against him for the sake of one of the Fiendish Five's daughter,"_ Carmelita thought with wonder to the raccoon, _"You really are a strange man, ringtail."_

_"Not strange, Inspector Fox,"_ Sly told to her with a correcting tone after he ended the memory-playback, _"Honorable. I may have been a thief, but I was and still am an __**honorable**__ thief. And one thing that really makes me mad is when people don't treat others with the honor and respect they deserve._

"_And Tsao was doing __neither__ to Jing. I swear, if that cheating bird hadn't escaped from the battle we had in that bamboo-valley, I would seriously beat him to a bloody pulp for what he had done to that poor girl, and what he intended to do after the marriage,"_ Sly ended with a cold tone that made the three young women shiver at his seriousness. _"I didn't care anymore if she was the daughter of the Panda King or not: __**No one's**__ allowed to treat a woman like a piece of shit just so they can have their stupid 'family-glory' secured!"_

Then he turned to a warmer tone. _"Women are someone to care for and love, not lock away from the world and violate. You girls deserve to be happy and enjoy life, to be around people you can trust and get help from. You deserve to find the right one for yourself, the one you want to grow old with and have children with."_

"_Oh, Sly,"_ Carmelita thought with a small sniff and a smile, _"You just really makes me want to love you more with your 'how to treat ladies right'-speech, you know that?"she ended with a mock accusation._

_"I only say it as it is, Carm,"_ Sly thought to the Spanish vixen with a grin, _"Jing deserves so much better than a stuck-up wannabe-emperor who kicks puppies."_

_"And I think Sly deserves an extra kiss for being for human- and women-rights, or what, Senõrita Fox?"_ Falisa thought suggestively.

"_Oh, he deserves so much more than just a peek on the lips, Senõrita Gaup,"_ Carmelita thought to the attractive young half-lynx, "_After all these incredible sights I've seen in here, I am more indebt to that ringtail than I would like to elaborate." "Indebt? As in..,"_ Sly thought anticipating.

"_As in everything,"_ Carmelita thought to him, _"I owe you not only for saving my life so many times, but for enduring all my swearing and all the times I chased you down. If only I had seen you for what you really were before..."_

_"It's not your fault, Carm,"_ Sly told her while he gave her a soft hug, _"All your police training and your will to fight crime blocked out your true feelings for me, and that's why you couldn't do anything but vent at me, the thief that caused your emotional confusion."_

"_I can't blame you for that, Miss Fox,"_ Krystal thought to the police vixen, "_Trying to make sense of an enigma like Sly would make anyone fret."_

_"Yeah,"_ Falisa added in, _"boys like Cooper are rare treats, that's for certain."_

"_Yeah, you nailed it down right there, chica," _Carmelita thought before she moved her face closer to Sly's, _"Rare, and sweet as heaven,"_ before they closed the gap between them in a sweet kiss.

"_FREEZE, COOPER! YOU'RE UNDER ARREST!"_ a bellowing voice suddenly shouted at them, which made the cop-and-thief-couple bolt out of their embrace, and made all of them look around in fright.

_"What the- There's cops around HERE?" _Sly thought in shock.

"_I SAID FREEZE!" _the voice from before shouted into their minds,_ "YOU'RE CHARGED WITH MINDNAPPING, SHOWCASING PERSONAL MEMORIES, KISSING AN OFFICER OF THE LAW IN PUBLIC, and..." _at this the voice became less loud and brash, and started to snicker, _"pee-he-eing your pa-ha-ha-ants off at a lo-ho-ho-ow joke."_

At this, a certain wolf-fox appeared from behind one of the many spheres floating around. _"Gotcha go-ho-ho-hood there, right?"_ he thought to the couple before he lost himself into fits of laughter. "_Bwa, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ah! You guys looked like you were ready to poop bri-hi-hi-hicks_!" the hysterical half-breed managed to think in-between his guffawing.

"_Michael! How the Hell did you get in here?"_ Falisa thought to her chuckling boyfriend, having been mute in shock for the first 20 seconds after she saw him walk up on them from nowhere, _"And, why are you here in the first place?"_

_"Oh, that,"_ Michael thought as his laughing receded, _"Well, you guys have been in this 'limbo' for one-and-a-half hour, mind you."_

"_That long?"_ Falisa thought out loud, _"Oh boy, looks like we got a little carried away."_

_"Yeah, well I only came here to wake you girls and lone guy up from the trance,"_ Michael thought, _"Seeing as you had so much fun looking at Cooper's memories here._"

"_Well, it wasn't just fun Michael,"_ Falisa thought to him, _"Some of those memories were downright scary. Clockwerk, Muggshot, the Contessa, Neyla, Tsao, Dr. M... Oh Michael, you have no idea how bad they really were!"_ the half-leopardess continued as she came in closer, _"Forget what the news and papers and all that said, those persons could compare to a hellish inferno with all the suffering and pain they made for Sly, his friends, and about anyone else in their way,"_ she ended with a shiver.

"_Okay, anything that makes __**you**__ cringe besides the undead, has got to be really bad,"_ Michael thought as he hugged the girl, before he whispered, _"Even the part about the 'spice'?"_

_"Especially the part about the spice,"_ Falisa thought to him gravely, _"Michael, that spice was close to make Sly give himself up as a brainless zombie for the Contessa! If it hadn't been for Bentley, neither he nor Carmelita would be here now."_

_"Whoa, it was really that nasty?"_ Michael thought in wonder.

_"The thoughts from inside a tight, cold room under heavy, merciless guard __**and**__ a mind drowned with spicy drugs doesn't lie, Mickey," _Falisa thought to him.

"_Alright, alright, I get it,"_ Michael thought to her before he looked at the vixen and raccoon, _"Sorry about that, guys. I just thought I'd play a little joke on you. I had no idea you had seen lots of frightening stuff or something."_

_"We accept the apology,"_ Sly thought to the half-wolf, _"I guess we needed to get back to our senses, anyhow. It's just, this place is so incredible and such; I had near forgotten some of the memories I've seen now."_

"_Yeah, and it has been so helpful in showing __**me **__just what a great man Sly really is,"_ Carmelita thought out loud before she looked at Michael and Falisa, _"I have to thank you two for bringing us to your 'tech-fortress' so I could get to know Sly's real feelings here."_

"_Aw shucks, you're too kind, Miss Fox,"_ Michael thought before he added, _"But hey; this beats finding out the wrong way, right? A sudden crisis with a following realization, jumbled emotions, duty before heart, and all that jazz."_

_"Yeah, this certainly was way better,"_ Carmelita said as she looked at Sly with a smile.

"_Uh-hum,"_ a new voice butted in, _"You wanna get this mindset unclogged, or what?"_

At this, Sly and Carmelita got pensive looks again.

_"Okay, Mickey, I'm getting really tired of your tricks right now,"_ Falisa thought with a frown to her beau.

_"It isn't me this time, I swear,"_ Michael thought sincerely to her before he pointed to the sphere he had showed up from behind, _"It's the person that got me here in the first place who's talking. It's alright, you can come out now,"_ he thought to the concealed person.

When the Plumber stepped out, Falisa screamed in their minds, _"Omigosh! You!"_

_"Well, well,"_ the blue-skinned man thought with a grin, _"If it isn't that cute little kitten who tried to conceive a flower for me while I was here five years ago. My, how much more beautiful you've grown since then," _he thought while he looked her over, _"and might I add, you've grown real nicely in the __**right**__ places."_

"_W-well, thanks, Plum,"_ Falisa thought with a blush at him, before she looked into Michael's eyes, "_You didn't tell me Ratchet, Clank and their friends had come."_

_"Well, they came while you guys delved into Sly's mind,"_ Michael thought to her, "_And now, me and Plum here have come to get you guys out of here and into the real world again. Couldn't let you guys miss their introduction, could I?"_

Then he added to Falisa, _"Besides, you shouldn't be doing this for so long. You're bound to get tired of keeping all of you guys in here with that mind spell, no matter how much of the responsibility you're sharing with Krys over there,"_ he nodded at Krystal.

_"Oh crud, I forgot about that!"_ Falisa said as she smacked a palm in her face.

"_What do you mean, 'tired'?"_ Krystal asked her a bit wondering.

_"Well, I may be good with magic, but I can't really keep doing it for too long periods of time,"_ Falisa answered the Cerinian mystic, _"At the worst I could get sick and stop my magic at the worst possible-"_ Suddenly, she shook, followed by the rest of the limbo wavering a bit, _"-T-time."_

"_Uh, guys, I think it's time we woke up right now,"_ Michael said to them all.

_"But, I don't remember how to do that,"_ Falisa thought a bit woozily.

_"And I have no idea how to either!"_ Krystal thought worriedly.

_"Oh, great,"_ Carmelita thought with a frown, _"I finally get to know Sly for real, and now we're bound to be trapped in his mind forever or something!"_

"_Not if I can help it,"_ Plum thought out loud to them as he was looking behind some spheres. _"Aha! I knew it,"_ he thought triumphantly as he shoved the orbs away for the others to see.

_"What the- What's a __**green pipe**__ doing in __here__?"_ Sly thought confused at the sight of the, well, green pipe sticking out from the invisible floor of the limbo.

_"Oh, that,"_ the plumber thought in the raccoon's direction, "_That there pipe represents one of the connections between a persons consciousness and their __**un**__consciousness."_

"_Hey, I remember that one,"_ Michael thought, _"And I remember what you told Clank while in his mind too. 'Six minutes', eh?"_

_"Well, golly, they managed to 'find out' about that too?"_ Plum thought with a grin and quotation marks while he said _'find out'_. At the sight of two vixens and one raccoon with puzzled looks, he hurriedly continued, _"Never mind that, you'll find out what I'm talking about soon enough! Now jump into that pipe, and we'll see you real soon."_

"_And I bet you won't come with us down there, right?"_ Michael asked him with a slight grin after Sly, Carmelita and Krystal had jumped down, him still standing with Falisa in his embrace.

_As I told that tiny clanking-bot,"_ Plum thought, _"I said AND I quote, "Plumbers don't go diving down strange pipes all willy-nilly, that be ridiculous!"_

_"You know, that sounds a little weird coming from someone who went looking for sewer-crystals in a sewer, crawling with __**Amoeboids**__,"_ Michael thought with a smart remark to the Novalian.

"_Well, that was for the missus, ya know,"_ Plum thought in defense, _"I'd do anything for her."_

_"So would I for my girlfriend,"_ Michael said as he looked at the half-dazed young cat-woman in his arms, _"Well, I'm no plumber, so I don't think you'll mind if I jump in there, or what?"_

_"Suit yerself, kiddo,"_ the plumber thought to him.

"_Great,"_ the half-fox thought at the blue man before he looked at Falisa, _"Ready for a tandem-jump down a drainpipe?"_

_"Anything, just get me out of here,"_ she thought with a shaky voice.

_"Okay then, honey, hang on tight,"_ Michael said as he leapt up on top of the pipe with her and turned his head to the plumber,_ "See you in a moment, Plum."_

"_You too, and remember: Look before you leap!"_ the Plumber thought as a last remark to the half-wolf before he and his girlfriend went down the pipe...

* * *

When Falisa got conscious, she felt very weak and had a little headache going on, which made her unable to open her eyes properly. But suddenly, something touched intimately to her lips as she was kept upraised by two nice, strong hands.

When she finally opened her eyes, she saw Michael had picked her up and was kissing her softly, his eyes staring lovingly at her. She got more awake at this, but she didn't object to getting waked up this way. That is, until she noticed many faces staring at them, some blank, some childishly disgusted, and others again just fawning over the sweetness of their moment.

"You go, Michael," Rayman said to them with a big grin and a floating hand giving him the 'thumbs-up', "Way to go with waking that 'sleeping beauty'!"

"Okay, that's it," Falisa said when she moved her lips away from Michael's, "Show's over, so stop staring, please!" While some of the gang around them snickered, she turned to Michael again and said in a low, mock-evil tone, "And you are gonna **pay** for this later, _mister_."

"Well, so much for a 'good morning'-kiss," Michael said with a sigh as he let go of the girl, but he had to grab her again when her knees failed to support her. "Hm, maybe it's best if I keep hold of you for a **little** longer," he said with a smirk.

"I'd really appreciate that," Falisa said as the fatigue washed over her again.

When she was established in Michael's grasp again, Falisa looked over at Sly, Carmelita and Krystal who stood besides Fox and their gangs. "Well, I think we could say "Mission accomplished", or what Krys?" she said to the azure-furred woman with a grin.

"Definitely, dear," Krystal answered her back with a smile while in her own lover's hands, as she looked at the inspector, "I would say we got the job done with flying colors."

"And for what you two did, I'm forever grateful," Carmelita said to them as she gave Sly a genuine smile of love.

"Huh, that must've been some _mind-cleaning_," Bentley whispered to Murray, "I've never seen Inspector Fox look so calm and, well, _happy_ this close to Sly, not even while he faked amnesia."

"Yeah," Murray said back to his turtle buddy in awe, "She actually doesn't look like she's gonna cart us of to jail for once. That cute cat-girl and that blue fox-lady must've done some awesome "bibbety-babbety-boos" to make her like this!"

As they all stood there, a flushing sound was heard from the other side of the room, as a certain alien plumber came out from the men's restroom stationed there.

"Now, then," Plum said as he walked up to the crowd while he rubbed his hands with an old cloth, "That'll be five thousand bolts for one unclogged mindset." At this, many of the others (with the exception of Ratchet and his friends) gave him a dumb look. Michael, though, only grinned at him.

"Sure, but I think you remember we don't use bolts as pay around here," he said remindingly to the blue man.

"'Course I do, I'm just kidding with ya," Plum said with a chuckle, "Couldn't help it without a lil' 'work joke', ya see."

"Uh, I don't mean to barge in on the fun," Ratchet said with his left foot tapping in annoyance, his arms crossed to the three as he raised an eyebrow at Michael, "But, I thought you said something about **introductions**?"

"Well, if you insist, I'll start right away," Michael said to the lombax before he pointed into the spacious lounge-room, "But would you mind if we did so inside where we can sit? I'd like to get my girlfriend comfortable while I talk," at which he looked at Falisa with concerned eyes.

"Come on, Ratchet, let's go inside and let the girl get some rest," Talwyn said to him with a look, "She looks pretty woozy, the poor thing."

"Alright, Tal," Ratchet said to her as he looked inside himself, "I could go for some refreshments after our trip anyway."

"I'm going to get Pablo to fix us some evening delights right away," Julius said to the alien cat-like man before he added, "And I'll be sure to have my folks down at the garage send up some batteries and oil for your robotic accomplices," which resulted in whoops of joy from the two old battle-bots standing behind Talwyn .

"Thanks a lot, mister!" the blue bot known as Cronk said with glee.

"I could go for a "Long Island Nitro"-shake right now," the brown long-faced one, Zephyr said with a dreamy look in his lens.

"You're too old to process that stuff, you know, Zeph."

"Says he who can't process the difference between a parasol-drink and a bottle of Pythor-acid!"

"Guys, please don't start now!" the Markazian girl said to the bickering robot-men, "A young 'civilian' are in need of rest. Now if you could please shut up and let her pass quietly..?"

"Whops! Sorry, Miss Apogee!" the brown-colored Zephyr said to his young protégé, bolting up into a salute as he noticed Falisa in Michael's arms, "We're ready to escort the poor girl to the closest hospital with our guarantees at stake!"

"It's enough if you just let us inside the room without a fuss," the long-eared and -tailed girl said to him.

"My, is this gonna be fun or what?" Michael said to his girlfriend with a grin as he put his right arm under her legs and shifted her body up to carry her bridal-style.

"Just give me a sofa to lie on and some aspirin for my head," Falisa said with a weak growl as her boyfriend moved into the lounge-room with everyone in the crowd following.


	12. Ch 11: A Lombax' tale of trials

A Lombax' tale of trials

After everyone was seated inside on the comfy couches among various exotic floras from God-knows-whichever-jungle, and after Pablo sent up some afternoon-snacks and drinks for everyone (including the aforementioned fine oil and battery-charges for the robots, and some medicine for Falisa's headache), Michael went into telling them about their newest additions to the "guest-roster".

"Well, my friends," the wolf-fox started, "Let me formally introduce you to Ratchet." Here, he gestured to the yellow-furred man with the odd ears, all eyes averting to him as he gave a wave of his hand. "This guy is famous back in Solana, his home-galaxy, as one of the greatest and youngest heroes ever, having saved three galaxies in the spawn of 9 years, most prominently Solana, which he saved no less than 4 times.

"But really, his story starts quite some time ago, actually some twenty-five years from now. Ratchet here was then a small cub, no older than a few months, when disaster struck his original home-planet of Fastoon within the Polaris Galaxy. A wicked robot-army laid siege on the homeworld of the Lombax-race, led by a short but dangerous man known as Emperor Tachyon, the last known individual of a despised warrior-race known as the Cragmites.

"The evil alien wanted to annihilate the Lombaxes because their ancestors had completely eviscerated the Cragmite-race from the face of the Universe, him being the sole survivor because he was frozen down as an egg and hidden inside the mines of a desolate planet sometime before his race disappeared. Decades later, he was found by lombax-miners digging for trillium ore, and taken in by the Lombax people in pity because he was the last of his kind because of their forefathers.

"That was the gravest mistake ever done in the history of the Polaris galaxy, as Percival Tachyon- Yes, that's the evil dude's name," Michael added to some of the audience who snickered at the name of the alien conqueror, before he continued in a grave tone, "-As Tachyon later found out, and vowed to lay waste to the Lombaxes for what they had done to his race, which he now was doing with his robotic army crafted by Lombax technology either salvaged from around the galaxy, or taken from the lombaxes themselves in secrecy.

"In the ensuing bloody conflict, most of your people sealed themselves inside the walls of the Court of Azimuth, where in a last desperate hope of survival, they activated their race's most powerful invention ever: the Dimensionator, a wormhole-device created during the Great War of Polaris between the Lombaxes and the Cragmites, and used as a last resort to banish the accursed species of brutal, blood-thirsty reptile/insectoid-like warriors from the known Universe.

"Because of its incredible powers, the Dimensionator was kept secret from all non-Lombaxes, gaining it the name of 'the Lombax Secret', getting rumors spread about it holding the power to make all life vanish off the face of a planet. Now the lombaxes had to use it to vanish to another dimension themselves, to escape the wrath of the self-appointed Emperor Tachyon.

"While many of your kind managed to escape to an unknown dimension, some of your people stayed behind to keep the invading forces at bay, two of them being your infant self, and your father Kaden, the Keeper of the Dimensionator. Out of fear for your life, and since your mother had died in the gruesome fight, Kaden took you away from the wasteland that used to be your home, and hid you on an inhabited desert-world known as Veldin. He then went on to hide the Dimensionator somewhere safe to make sure Tachyon didn't get his claws on it and used it to find the surviving lombaxes. Your father was never heard of again."

At hearing this, many of the other heroes around gave Ratchet sympathetic looks, feeling sorry for the young furry alien's parents and homeworld. Ratchet himself actually let some tears streak down his chin as he heard that part of his past retold, with Talwyn giving him a sad look of compassion and Clank pulling out a towel from inside his radiator core to his friend.

After Ratchet had wiped his eyes, Michael continued on in a cheerier tone. "In the following years, you grew up on the outskirts of one of the cities on Veldin, having no knowledge about yourself other than your species name. Growing up alone, you turned into a young rascal with a knack at mechanics and a thirst for adventure, being inspired by various heroic characters you heard about during your self-upbringing, including," here Michael paused and looked at Qwark who sat besides the nerdy Al, "the one and only Captain Qwark."

"Thank you, thank you," the big guy in green latex said with bravado as he rose and began to bow to one and all, stopping when he didn't get any applause at all. "Eh, um, go on," he said in a quiet tone as he seated himself again.

"Thank you," Michael said with a smirk before he continued. "Well, it was sometime after your 15th birthday, your wish to go out on an adventure came true in the shape of a fresh, tiny, robotic know-it-all with a monotone vocal-cord and green eye-lenses, who you gave the simple nickname of Clank," at which Michael looked at the aptly-named dwarf-robot.

"He was born in a robot factory on planet Quartu, run by an alien race known as the Blaarg, and he was actually a rejected miss-craft intentionally made by the supercomputer in charge of the factory as its artificial mind had come to learn trough an unknown source what her creators were going to use her "sons" for.

"Clank, and later yourself, then learned about the man in charge of the Blaarg: a Blaargian business-man known as Chairman Drek. The short no-nonsense man had thought up a heinous plan to make the biggest scam in the Universe: pollute the Blaargians' home-planet Orxon into the extreme, and then lead his people to war with the rest of the Solana Galaxy to get their hands on planets with landmasses perfect for their liking, and pluck them apart to assemble their finest attributes to a new globe the Blaarg could inhabit, where he (Drek), being the owner, could charge them large sums of money to be able to live on 'new Orxon' .

"And, believe it or not, guys, but they managed to do that," Michael said to them. With unbelieving expressions, all heads turned to Ratchet and Clank, who only nodded to them with a "No kidding!"-look on their faces.

"We saw the planet ourselves," Ratchet told them.

"And those mismatched colors on the continents and oceans were more than enough proof that it consisted of stolen parts of different planets," Clank said to back up.

"Much later on," Michael went on, "You found out from Drek himself that he planned to redo the process with this new planet and every-one next he had planned to create, for the sake of him charging his men for cash for the aspect of yet another homeworld, making his people destroy the inhabitable worlds of Solana while he would get even more stinkingly rich than he already was.

"You weren't going to let this go on at all," Michael continued as he looked at the Lombax sitting inbetween his Markazian girl-friend and his short robotic buddy, "And travelled to the planet Novalis, as it was the planet Drek had advertised to the galaxy that his army would invade first.

"It is to mention that it was during the ride in Ratchet's homemade spaceship where Clank got his name, as he made a clanking-sound when he bumped to the side of the cockpit when the craft shook while they introduced each other."

"I am glad the shook wasn't hard enough to leave any permanent bulks," Clank said with a smile as he caressed the part of his round head which had 'clanked' into the cockpit during that ride.

"Landing on the planet surface in a less-than-impressive manner (with the poor ship crashing for reasons unknown), you went around the war-torn outskirts of one of the many cities of the planet looking for a new spacecraft you could use to travel around with. It was during this time you first met Pommel "Plum" Clogsbury, the Plumber." Here Michael stopped again to look at Plum.

"You just had to drag out my name, didn't ya?" the Novalian said with yet another purple tinge on his cheeks, followed by a snicker from Ratchet, Clank and Qwark.

"Well anyways, helping Plum out with some escape-travel-cash in exchange for an Infobot, a small robot used to play information-videos like news-recordings or the like, you got the coordinates for the planet Aridia, along with an SOS from a hover-board super-star called Skid McMarx who had crash-landed there after being attacked by Blaarg forces while travelling to his next championship-destination.

"Later acquiring a ship by saving the planetary chairman of Novalis, you then got coordinates from him of the bustling city of Metropolis on planet Kerwan, where you hoped you would find Qwark, the only person believed to be able to stop Drek. Instead of him, you met Big Al," at which Michael looked onto the plump man with the robotic right eye and -arm and dressed in a white lab-coat ("hi."), "Who outfitted Clank with his first ever upgrade, the Heli-pack.

"You two went on to look for Qwark elsewhere, and eventually, after some planet-hoping, found him on planet Rilgar, the super-hero celebrity being on tour there during Blackwater City's annual Hover-board Tournament, giving autographs to fans and dealing out prizes to the winners of the races.

"As luck would have it, you had acquired a hover-board necessary for racing by saving Skid McMarx earlier on in your travels, competing in his place during the competition. Winning the whole thing, you got the long-sought chance to meet the elusive hero and struck a deal with him to train with him for the upcoming battle against Drek.

"The whole thing turned up to be a big-ass farce as you later learned on Qwark's personal training facility on planet Umbris, when the 'good' Captain dropped you into a pit where he told you he was on Drek's side all along, having been bribed with the aspect of becoming the spokesperson for the new Blaargian homeworld, and trying to do you off with his pet Blaargian Snagglebeast, which you luckily were able to 'do off' instead."

Hearing this, many of the listeners looked onto Qwark with shocked, disgusted and angry glares.

"Hey, how were I supposed to know Drek wasn't gonna live up to his word after all?" the 'super-hero' said in defense, continuing with, "There weren't much work for a man of my caliber to pay my bills with anyways, back then! And suddenly getting such a chance, how could anyone refuse a golden deal like **that?"**

"Somebody who's less full of themselves and with a 1000+ IQ points over his," Ratchet said in a whisper to Talwyn, who giggled in response.

"What was that?" Qwark asked the lombax with a frown.

"Nothing!" the furry mechanic said innocently.

"Anyways," Michael continued, "After going after Qwark to get revenge for the double-crossing, (and exacting it in quite an exceptional space-battle, might I add), you travelled around the besieged planets to thwart more of the Blaarg's campaigns. It was later after you had snuck into the robot factory on Quartu while disguised as a robot with a Holo-guise acquired on Kalebo III, where you found and met Clank's 'mother', who showed you through another Infobot that Drek had planned to destroy Veldin as it had the planetary orbit perfect for his new planet.

"You of course were enraged at this and travelled straight back to your home-planet, where you fought your way through Drek's forces, destroyed his armada, and later faced the main Blaarg himself. I don't think I have to say that it's a good thing you had amassed a small arsenal of different weapons during your adventure, seeing as Drek awaited you with a big-ass war-mecha."

"Thank goodness for Gadgetron and their weapon-vendors," Ratchet said with a smile, "The number one company to turn to for the intergalactic mercenary-on-the-go."

"With GrummelNet and Megacorp coming in as nr. 2 and 3, respectively," Clank added.

"Well, after blasting up Drek's battle-mech and sending it and him flying to his planet (which had been towed close-by beforehand), you set of his Deplanetizer's destruction-ray onto it, effectively blowing to pieces the floating rock and its master that had been the core of your galaxy's troubles.

"Of course, with something as extravagant as stopping an intergalactic crisis like that, you two ended up as heroic celebrities yourselves, while Qwark fell from the same rank, down to becoming a salesman for dysfunctional household stuff like personal Hygienators."

"I still can't believe I bought one of those stupid things," Ratchet said to himself, "I still remember that funny feeling in my butt from back when I still had it."

"Which just so happened to be during the 'Protopet Incident' one year later," Michael continued on, "Where Ratchet and Clank were literally zapped away from Veldin and to the HQ of Megacorp, the leading corporation in the neighboring Bogon Galaxy, where they got introduced with and briefed by its CEO, a mister Abercrombie Fizzwidget, to save an experimental, genetically modified creature known simply as the Protopet, from a mysterious masked thief who had stolen it for unknown purposes.

It was later when you had managed to save and return the small, blue nibbler to mister Fizzwidget, when you learned the identity of the thief: Angela Cross, a female Lombax who used to work for Megacorp's Genetic s Department, until she had been dismembered from the organization when she had tried to stop Fizzwidget from releasing the Protopet onto the market, as the experimental pet hadn't gotten all its cinches out yet.

Later again, after seeing all the trouble and mayhem the released Protopets did to Bogon's inhabited worlds, you travelled along with Angela to the Megacorp HQ where the original Protopet where held. There you found out mister Fizzwidget had been replaced by," here Michael paused for tension, before he dramatically pointed at the green latex-wearing man again, "Captain Qwark."

"Whoa, somebody's got a penchant for trouble-making," Plum said in his seat.

"Oh, please don't talk about this," Qwark said pleadingly to the half-wolf.

"Sorry, Captain, but you asked for it," Michael said smugly to him, "As you had 'cleverly' cooked up a plan to sell billions of Protopets to the people of Bogon, and in the ensuing crisis, you would 'save' them from the threat by using Angela's own Protopet-fixer, the Helix-O-Morph, to fix the dysfunctional creatures and blame Ratchet and Clank for the pets' rampage, as those two were the reason for your fall in fame.

"Of course, you blooped it up by putting the machine's batteries in backwards, resulting in the device malfunctioning and turn the little critter into a humongous monster that swallowed you. If it hadn't been for Ratchet's combat-skills, you'd end up as Protopet-poop.

"With some effort, the Protopet-monster was defeated, Qwark was out of its belly, and once the Helix-O-Morph was fixed by Angela and Clank, all the Protopets around the galaxy were fixed and the menace ended, no thanks to you," Michael ended as he glared at Qwark again. "Be glad the REAL mister Fizzwidget, after his release, even gave you a job as a _**test dummy**_ for Crotchitizers."

"You guys don't want to purchase one of those, seriously," Ratchet said warningly to Sly and DK who sat close by, "They're some of the freakiest 'household'-items you'll ever see actually on the market."

"Oh, you're no fun," Qwark said with a look to the lombax, "I find the Crotchitizer to be quite the enjoyable little gizmo."

"Why, what does it do?" Donkey Kong asked with only a monkey's innocence, while Sly gave the ape a look of wonder for his bad 'catching-onto-words'-reflex.

"Well, if you people want a demonstration," Qwark said as he brought out his own pocket-Crotchitizer, only to have Zephyr take the small clawed contraption out of his gloved hand, "Hey!"

"You seriously need a female partner, Mr. President," the old robot said with a hopeless sigh to him as he held onto the Megacorp-labeled gadget.

"Well, it was not a year later when disaster struck the Solana galaxy again," Michael went on, "This time being invaded by a race known as the Tyhrranoids. Being that they were also laying siege on Veldin, you went straight back home to stop the creatures from tearing apart your homeworld.

"Also of note were the part that after helping the Galactic Rangers sent by the authorities to stop the Tyhrranoids, you were invited onboard their base of operations, Starship Phoenix, where you met and fell in love with its captain, Sasha Phyronix, the daughter of President Phyronix, the Galactic President of Solana."

"But a little before that, you had been contacted by the President himself to locate Captain Qwark, the only person he saw fit to end the Tyhrranoids' takeover and stop their leader. Of course, Qwark had somehow ended up back in Solana, and would you believe it, inside the jungles of planet Florana, amongst his adoptive Cyclophic monkey-family no less."

"Yes, you heard him," Qwark said as the different people around them gave him disbelieving looks, "I was raised by one-eyed monkeys."

"One of them is called Skrunch," Clank said to them, "And he's quite the lively one, hmm-hmm-he-he-he-he."

"Well, I'll just jump over the more boring stuff and right to the reason why President Phyronix had such high expectations for Captain Qwark," Michael said to the audience, "See, the person who was behind the Tyhrranoids invasions, was a robotic mastermind known as Doctor Nefarious. And, NO, he's not around here," he added as Qwark was suddenly shaking a bit.

"Well, Nefarious was a madman who originally had been an organic man, but with both the fact of him being bullied at school, (most prominently by a 26-year old Qwark who were one of his classmates in **9****th**** grade!"** Michael added for his guests, who snickered at this), "bad characters in biology, and other bright minds scoffing at his beliefs and ideas, it all had made the doctor despise anything organic, or as he came to call beings of flesh and blood, squishies.

"And having his ideals looked down own by his colleagues, he did the typical 'mad doctor'-move, and set out to take over the world, or in his case, the galaxy. Of course, Captain Qwark here was put on his case when he let loose his creations known as the Amoeboids, slimy creatures who duplicate in the sewers and can grow to a massive size if left alone. Qwark was meant to exterminate them too, but after what I know, they were pretty bountiful around the galaxy while Ratchet and Clank went around fighting evil."

"Those little wandering dungs aren't that easy to take out completely, you know," Qwark complained.

"There, there, Captain," Big Al said to cheer up his idol, "Don't take it so hard on yourself, you were after bigger fish than those things after all."

"Yep," Michael said in response to the pudgy cyborg, "And a tall, thin, ugly barracuda of a 'big fish', too. Eventually, you found Nefarious in his secret base on planet Magmos, where you unintentionally sent him plummeting into a pit of fire and churning gears. But that wasn't the last of him: quite on the contrary, the doctor had somehow (presumably before you faced him, I bet) turned himself into a robot, evident in the robotic arm sticking out of the pit which you failed to noticed on your way out.

"Later on, Doctor Nefarious attacked the city of Metropolis with more of his creations, were you caught up on his activity while training in your personal course in the city, fighting your way up to the mad robot, and miraculously beating him, leaving him as a detached head. I have to admit that I liked the one-liner you gave him after he threatened you before you dumped him into the nearest trashcan," Michael said to the 'super-hero', "How was it again? Ah, now I remember: _"Just a bit of advice, Nefarious: Quit while you're a-__**head**__!"_"

"HA! Yeah, that one was a keeper, I know," Qwark said as he reminisced to that moment.

"And then," Michael continued, "the following "Bottoms up!""

"Did someone mention Champag-AH! You know about THAT?" Qwark yelped as he realized what the half-wolf alluded to.

"I've seen the 'vid'-comics, yeah," Michael said with a wolfish grin to the big green-clad man.

"What was a-that supposed to be?" Mario asked the seated lombax.

"Oh that," Ratchet said smugly as he looked at Qwark, "You see, Nefarious' got this butler-robot following him all around that's called Lawrence, and he's the one who makes sure Nefarious don't blow up on his own. Though that doesn't stop him from doling out witty insults at his conceited boss, like,_ "You put the 'wit' in __**twit**__, Sir,"_ and the like," the lombax ended with a smirk, adding to Michael, "And hearing as you know so much about us, I bet you know what Qwark's battle with Nefarious did to the doctor?"

"Five words: Lance and Janice radio-glitch," Michael answered the mechanic, making both young men laugh at the doctor's expense.

"Uh, guys," Talwyn said to them, "I think someone is getting **way** off track here."

"Ops, thanks for the reminder there, Miss Apogee," Michael said as he rubbed the back of his neck embarrassingly.

"Well, Lawrence managed to surprise Qwark with a frying-pan to the skull, taking both his boss-in-pieces and the knocked out-cold super-hero with them to another secret base of theirs, which Qwark miraculously managed to escape from, death-bots and rising acid and everything. And then, the 'Galactic defender #1' went into hiding from Dr. Nefarious' wrath, only coming back to do heroic deeds for fame and glory when the robotic mad genius didn't come after him."

"Oh, man," Qwark said in shame, "No one was supposed to know about my tactical retreat!"

"Don't be so down, Qwark," Michael told him, "For your information; I too would keep a low profile if some madman like Neffy were after me."

"Oh, that's nice to hear, young feller," the super-hero said happier to Michael.

"Anyways, back to the present timeline," the half-fox continued, "After you had found Qwark, and later on knocked some sense into him, you guys went on to fight against Nefarious and his Tyhrranoid hoards and robot commandoes, being helped along the way by Qwark's newly founded 'Q-Force', where Big Al were one of the team-members."

"The tech-wiz of the team and data-hacker numero Uno!" Big Al said proudly, finally being in the spotlight.

"You know," Ratchet said to him, "I doubt we could've stopped ol' Neffy without your super hacking-skills."

"Oh yeah," Al said as he struck a pose, looking like he typed on a board while in a guitarist's 'epic solo'-stance, "The Super-Al's got teh skillz!"

"Well, to speed this up," Michael went on, "After some interesting plot-twists including Solana's top female robot pop-singer Courtney Gears (who were in league with Nefarious), Clank's evil 'twin', Klunk, who was made by the 'squishy'-hating Doctor, and the destruction of Dr. Nefarious flagship, _the Leviathan_, (where Qwark had been left behind and thought dead,) you found out that Nefarious had created a machine he called the Biobliterator, a dangerous invention capable of turning organic individuals into robots en-mass.

It was then after beating the revealed doppelganger Klunk, saving _Starship Phoenix_ and its crew from Nefarious' elite robot-henchmen, and finding out Qwark still lived (in hiding again!), that you finally caught up to Nefarious' 'organic-to-robot'-doomsday-device, and managed to destroy it, only to find out the mad doctor had **another one** docked elsewhere!

"But you managed to find that one too, with the help of Big Al, of course," Michael said as he looked onto the partly-robotic nerd who lay back on the couch with a smile.

"Am I **teh** Super-hacker, or what?" Al gloated in glee.

"As would have it, you found Nefarious along with his Biobliterator 2.0. But for once, you finally got him to stop running away and fight you mano-a-mano. At least until he managed to get Lawrence to come to his aid and transform the Biobliterator into a gigantic, mechanoid battle-bot. But just as it seemed as you were about to become deep-fried Lombax: out of the blue came none other than Captain Copernicus Qwark to save the day after a change of heart."

"You better believe it, toasterhead!" Qwark said as he and Ratchet actually made fist-bombs to the other's hand, "Man, it felt SO good to say that in Dome-Head's face."

"And the look on his face when the countdown on the mech's selfdestruct-sequence quickly skipped from 60 seconds to "Time's up!" in such a naughty way," Michael said as the lombax, the short gray robot and the huge hero snickered at the memory, "Priceless."

"Then it's pretty much downhill from there," Michael said as he tried to hasten the story-telling, "As you a year later became abducted into the modern gladiator-show known as DreadZone, led by the blood-sports-enjoying Gleeman Vox, who abducted various heroes from around the galaxy to fight to the death (which earned him lots of bolts in the bank from a wealthy audience), and whose top gladiator was the former super hero named Ace Hardlight. It was during your 'stay' there that Al got injured by Ace while he and Clank found a way to take off the deadly restraining Deadlock collars used to keep contestants at bay. Those injuries are the reason why Al today is a cyborg, as his damaged body-parts had become too fatally wounded to heal normally."

"Eh, it's not too bad when you get used to it," Al said as he moved his cybernetic right arm around to show, "Actually, it adds to my personality. And I lost weight too, so that's just a plus!"

"Yeah, I bet," Michael said before he went on, "Then afterward, you guys luckily managed to stop that crazy show, beat Hardlight and kill of Vox at the same time, as well as save the remaining heroes still there. Then you guys could finally have yourself a well-earned vacation at Jowai resort on the tropical planet of Pokitaru, which you back in the Blaarg's invasion saved from pollution and mutated sealife.

"Well, sometimes, fate just won't give tired heroes a rest, as you experienced when you had to save a little girl called Luna, who was interviewing you for a school-project about heroes, who got abducted by a group of aliens who you found out was Techno-Mites. This race were thought to be just a myth, being called masters of advanced technology because they were so small they could easily fit inside about any machine and tinker with it from the inside. But they were really real, and they were causing trouble.

"It was only later you found out that Luna actually was a robot _disguis__ed _as a little girl, which the Techno-Mites used to bait you into their grasp so they could capture you and extract your DNA.

"Their reason? To create an army of Ratchet-clones for their leader, one Otto Destruct, to use as his personal enforcers for a crime that was downright super-evil. The small, but big-brained alien leader had planned to gather the most brilliant minds in the universe, which he would then suck all intellect out of them with a brain-swapper he had invented.

"His reason for this weird scheme was taken right from the old saying, "Knowledge is Power," as he saw the prospect of becoming the wisest man in the Universe, which to him also meant getting the means to control it," Michael told the audience, many of which got a shocked expression as they heard this.

"That's one of the most wicked crimes I've ever heard of," Bentley said in both disgust and awe at the thought of an already super-smart person going to great lengths to turn even brainier. He then asked an obvious question, "But why did he need an army of mister Ratchet, here?"

"Simple," Ratchet told the turtle, "He and his henchmen had come to hear about me and my reputation. Of course they wanted a bunch of copies of a galactic hero with such skills like mine!

"The only thing they failed to add in the math," the lombax continued as he looked at Clank with a smile, "was the fact that Clank is my main reason for getting so far. Without someone like him to help me out, I would've been just as helpless as all those lookalikes of me."

"Wait a minute! I contributed just as much to your victory as him!" Qwark said annoyingly to the lombax.

"Oh yeah, right," Ratchet said to the pompous man in green latex, "You butted in from the start, got fooled into believing Otto was your daddy, and only in the end did you find out who your real parents were (and that they had died because of defect Techno-Mite technology), and in your rage you tried to switch Otto's mind with your **much** less intelligent one. Luckily in the end, Skrunch did it instead, while you ended up shrunk down to midget-size."

"As I remember, those Ratchet-clones, being they were still Techno-Mite-size, got turned into a kind of 'pet'-fad, didn't they?" Michael said to the fur-and-metal-duo.

"You are quite well informed, sir," Clank told him, "They sold-out quicker than the tickets for one of my Holo-films."

"Wait a minute," Mario asked the small robot from his seat besides Peach and Yoshi, "YOU are a movie-star?"

"Why, yes indeed, I am," Clank said quite proudly to the red-capped plumber, "And quite the successful one, I must add."

"Back in the Solana and Bogon galaxies, he's really famous as 'Secret Agent Clank'," Michael explained to Mario and Co., "Sort of like the James Bond-equivalent for robots you could say."

"And funnily enough," Michael continued, "The plot of your next adventure could of have been taken straight from one of your movies. Ratchet getting framed for a crime he didn't do (consciously, might I add), Clank hunting down a league of crooks working together to lead you astray from the main man, and the shocking revelation of Klunk, having survived from the battle three years past, being the mastermind of the theft of the Eye of Infinity, a gem he had planned to use in a super-deadly laser he could use disguised as Clank to threaten to blow up any planet in the entire galaxy, then stop it as himself, dragging the real Clank into the mud and make him a wanted man.

"Like he really stood a chance of smearing the name of his better (and older) half, the real Clank, even thinking _he_ could beat **you** into scrap," Michael ended, giving the small robot a well-earned look of honor.

"He was a tough opponent, but yes, he didn't quite stand up against my upgraded and refined techniques," Clank said in satisfaction, "And might I add, he was better off as the vacuum cleaner we made of him after his defeat."

"With a poor guarantee," Ratchet added with a smirk, "I can't believe he would short-circuit after only two months."

"Maybe he simply couldn't 'stomach' all the snacks you kept spilling on the floor," Clank said to his friend, ending with that funny chuckle of his.

"Well, I think we've drawn it out long enough," Michael said as he took the mantle again, "It was some time after that, when you two went on the adventure that would give answers about both your pasts."

At this, Ratchet and Clank got more attentive, as well as everyone else around, to the mixed canine-man.

"Um, what do you mean with that?" Ratchet asked him with a quizzal face.

"Oh, come on," Michael said almost taken off guard by the question, "Didn't you hear me at the start? Tachyon? Polaris? The Dimensionator? Don't you think I would know about those things too with the rest I've told my guests here about?"

"Uh, now that I think about it, no," Ratchet said with an odd look, "I don't think they've made ga-"

"Hold it right there, young fella!" Plum said as he quickly butted in on the conversation, "And wait with that subject after Mikey here have told us all he knows about us."

"Uh, okay," Ratchet said a bit reluctantly, wondering to himself why the Plumber stopped him in the first place.

"I'll actually only need to say little here," Michael said as he gave the lombax a small mischievous glint, "As it all boils down to these things and guys: planet Fastoon (where you found Aphelion), the Apogee Space Station (where you met Talwyn, Cronk and Zephyr for the first time), Max Apogee, Captain Romulus Slag, Rusty Pete, the Iris Supercomputer, planet Jasindu, the Kerchu, planet Merdegraw, the Obsidian Eye, Captain Angstrom Darkwater, the Zoni, the Fongoids, the Agorians, the Great Clock, Orvus, Sigmund, Doctor Nefarious (again!), and last but no way the least; General Alister Azimuth.

"And then I haven't even mentioned Artemis Zogg and the Helios Project, nor the whole deal with the Creature collector," Michael ended with a smug smile as he saw both Ratchet, Clank and Qwark give him bug-eyes and slack jaws.

* * *

_AC: Oh, someone knows more than they should do, eh?_

_Well, next chapter is in the making, and when it's out, I'll **finally** reveal what's up with this odd meeting._

_Michael, out!_

_Edit: added some stuff, including A4O info._


	13. Ch 12: An odd Truth, and Bedtime

The Inevitable Revelation of an odd Truth

"What-? How-? When-?" was all the intergalactic trio could manage to mutter out in an confused manner, before Ratchet got his wits about him and spoke up their shared wondering, "How in the Hell do you know about Orvus, **the Great Clock** and _General Azimuth_? No one's supposed to know about them at all!"

"Oh, put a cork in it, my friend," Fox said to the young lombax, "This young guy and his friends just are that way. They know stuff about all of us that no one's supposed to know publicly."

"Yeah, and that's kind of creeping me out, now that I think about it," Sly said from his seat, "I mean, look at me! The public think that I **died** six years ago, and this guy goes and tells me **my own** history in a short and accurate way kinda like he did about you right now, if only to a less lengthy degree."

"Oh my," Clank said from his seat, before he turned his head to the half-fox, "Don't tell me you are some kind of all-knowing omnipotent being in a fathomable shape, or something like it?"

"HAH! Me, **omnipotent**?" Michael said with a guffaw, "Oh yeah, in my dreams! No, my robotic friend, the answer is something _very else_. Something so incredibly simple, yet so incredibly and utterly **weird**, that I think most of you would call me a crazy loon for saying it, even though the answer concerns all of you."

"Well, you don't have to a-worry about us," Mario said as he caught onto what the furry man alluded to, "Me and DK here are more than aware about the deal."

"We are?" Donkey Kong asked him, before he got a rap on his head from Cranky's walking stick, "Ouch!"

"Come on, Sonny, get what brain-cells you've got into gear!" Cranky said with a huff to his offspring, "Don't tell me you forgot already. Or do you have bananas on the brain _**again?**_"

"Hey! I was only kidding," Donkey said to his old father while he rubbed his head, "It's hard to forget **that** while you go on and on about it all the time."

"I still find it hard to believe sometimes, myself," Diddy said as he looked at Yoshi and Toad, "But then again, when you live in a world with dinosaurs and mushrooms that can walk and talk kinda like yourself, anything's possible."

"As well as living tiki-instruments with hypno-music and banana-aliens, right? Ark!" Squawks added, the green parrot perched on the armrest of the couch besides the chimp and his ponytailed girlfriend.

"Would somebody please **explain** what's with all the sudden confessions?" Krystal asked out loud for all to hear, "I am really getting confused here now."

"Yeah, me too," Misty said a bit irritably herself, "This is really getting on my nerves now."

"Well, I think it's about time we got to that point," Benjamin said seriously as he rose from besides Alexandra, walked over to Michael and looked him into his face, "Michael, it's now or never, and you know that."

"I was afraid you were gonna say that," Michael said to him with his ears down.

"Come on, Michael sweetie," Falisa said to him as she sat herself up on the pillows on her couch, having recovered somewhat from the magic-draining headache, "We've got them all softened up to us now, we can't fail our explanation now. Well, not too badly, at least," she added quickly.

"What do you mean, 'softened up'?" Carmelita asked in a suspicious voice, "I don't like the sound of that."

"Oh, I didn't mean it like that!" Falisa hurriedly, "It's just that, well, we needed you guys to know about us and each other a bit more before we could let you know our 'sources of information' about you guys. Which are completely legal, if you must know!" she added for the not-so convinced Inspector.

"Don't worry, my dear," Peach told her from her seat, "Me, Mario and the rest with us will help with the explanation if we can. We've gotten used to it."

"But my dear Princess," Toadsworth said to his protégé, "Are you sure they would understand it, even with your blue-blooded convincement?"

"Don't worry, mister Toadsworth," Alexandra told the old fungi-man, "This will only be an interesting event that'll knock their socks off."

"Enough babbling already," Ratchet said irritated, "And tell us what's really going on!"

"Alright, you asked for it," Michael said to him, as he rose up and silenced the crowd, "Time for us to give you our belated explanations." He then turned to Kalasta who stood by the seated Julius and Albert. "Well, mage, care to help me with the show?"

"I've waited for you to say that," Kalasta said with a voice that told you he was tired of all the stalling, "Now, do not become too startled when you see what is about to come." At this, he made some shoving moves with his arms, and as he did so, the couches and small tables around moved into a positioning in the likeness of a half-moon, with none of the food and drinks on the tables spilled.

The seated heroes got a little startled when the furniture they sat on moved, but with what they had witnessed of their hosts so far, they didn't become worse for wear.

They forgot to complain about the sudden magic act when they saw the old wizard conjure a big screen from the thin air.

"Oh! They're gonna show us a movie!" Murray said exited.

"Hey, anybody up for some popcorn?" Qwark said just as thrilled.

"I doubt you'll be able to eat any with what we're gonna show you," Michael said to the two big men. "Anyways, cue the show."

And as would have it, the lights in the room dimmed a notch as the screen lit up and showed something the audience didn't expect: rotating 3-d models of three videogame-consoles standing side by side.

"Hey, I know those things," Mario said, "That-a white one's a Nintendo Wii, that small one with the double-screens' a DS (can't figure out which a-model, though), and that black one... That's a PS3, right?" "Twenty points to the Italian plumber!" Michael said with a grin to the savior of fungi people. "Gee, I didn't know you kept up with this kind of stuff."

"Are you kidding? What with all the games that's been a-made about me? How do you think I'm not as in the shadows as most of these other types around me right a-now?" Mario said in a mock-insulted tone to the half-wolf.

"What do you mean, 'Games'?" Fox asked, very confused at the matter at hand. "Oh, I'll leave the explanations to the wide-screen," Michael said as he sat down besides Falisa who snuggled close to him, just as the wizard started pointing at the consoles on the screen, making them show clips of the games from them.

* * *

One hour and dozens of clips later, the most of the guests were in a state of shock.

After some moments though, Link spoke up. "Okay, what in **dragon blazes** was that?"

Michael couldn't help it, and gave the Hylian a sorry grin. "That, my friend, was clips from something the modern world calls 'video-games'. And in short, most videogames can be kind of like playing out an interactive story on a flat screen with moving pictures."

"O...kay," Link said slowly, before he then said, confused, "But, how come some of what we saw on that 'screen'-thingy, looked like it came _straight from my life?"_

"Oh, you mean like the part that showed you facing of against those Stalfos-troops in the Forest Temple?" Michael said as he remembered that part in particular (mostly because Falisa, in fear, had hugged very tightly to him at the sight of the skeletons) "And those other scenes with you against monsters within the other temples of Hyrule? Or how about those with you and Zelda, Saria, Malon, Epona and Ganondorf, not to forget those with the Deku Scrubs, Darmani, Mikau, Tingle, Anju, Kafei, the Skull Kid and Majora's Mask, among others?"

"Yes, those ones, and a lot more, might I add," Link said pretty disturbed all of a sudden, "I mean, this just seems so, for the lack of more fitting words, downright disturbingly weird!"

"Disturbingly weird is too easy a word for this whole situation," Fox said from his seat, "A more fitting description would be, sorry for my coming fit, COMPLETELY OUT-OF-THIS-GALAXY FUCKED-UP WEIRD!"

"You took the words right out of my mouth," Sly said, feeling just as pissed. "I mean, COME ON! There's just no way in HELL that there could exist a **videogame series** chronicling secret parts, if not the whole freaking deal, of our LIVES?"

"Not just videogames," Ash said from his seat, shaken slightly from what he had seen on the screen, "But comics AND cartoon-shows about us, too!"

"Yeah," Ratchet intoned too. "I mean, neither of us," here he addressed himself and his companions, "have even **mentioned** our personal stories for anyone to make a game-series and comics about what happened from our escape from Tachyon on Kerwan, to what happened during Zogg's freaking PLANET-NABBING, and then me, Clank and Qwark teaming up with Dr. Nefarious to trek trough planet Magnus!"

"I can't believe anyone actually found out about Snowball," Qwark said, remembering the sight of him 'befriending' the giant War Grok inside the Agorian Battleplex.

"Okay, I think we need to tell you a shocking truth," Michael said to the exasperated heroes, "These video-games, and those comics and cartoons, are for real. They do exist."

"But, how?" Sly said with an odd voice. "If someone had made a videogame-series about my LIFE, wouldn't **I** _perhaps_ know about it?"

"I think you know about some of these guys around you too, actually," Michael said as he looked to Kalasta again. "Mage, I think you can cancel out those memory-spells now."

"My pleasure," Kalasta said, and did a waving motion with his left hand towards the Cooper gang (Carmelita included), a slight white shimmering light extending from his wrinkled hand and over to the three men and two women.

When the light hit them, they closed their eyes and began to groan, rubbing their heads. As the light dissipated, the band of honorable thieves (and their leader's beautiful former-pursuer of the law) began to blink their eyes as if they came back to their senses.

Murray was the first to yell out. "OMIGOSH! WE'RE SITTING RIGHT BESIDES A BUNCH OF VIDEOGAME-CHARACTERS! WHY HAVEN'T I NOTICED THAT YET?"

"I don't believe it!" Bentley said as well. "We really ARE sitting besides a bunch of fictional people!"

"Fictional?" Rayman said taken aback, "What do you mean by 'Fictional'?" "JUMPING HAMBURGERS! RAYMAN REALLY IS FOR REAL!" Murray said in ecstasy as he hugged the limbless man.

"Uh, what is up with you guys now?" Krystal said slightly worried as she looked at Carmelita and Penelope staring at her with big eyes.

"**You're** weirded out about this? You're the one supposed to be a bloody **videogame character**, girl!" Penelope almost shouted at her before she first pinched her own chin to check if she's awake, and then touched Krystal, then Murphy, then Pikachu, and finally Yoshi to make sure they weren't holograms.

"Okay, what did you do to them?" Ly asked Kalasta in a concerned tone as the Cooper gang (+ a Spanish vixen) either stared at or touched some of the other heroes seated around. "They look almost ready to be tied with those expressions."

"Oh, I simply gave them back whatever memories they have about all of you from their past experiences," the old wizard told the good-looking fairy-woman.

"Huh-WHAT?" Rayman said, having been released by the strong hippo some moments before and now trying to massage his body into shape again, "Whaddya mean, 'memories' about **us** from 'past experiences'? We've never meet them before, for the Knaaren's sake!"

"Not in person, no, but game-wise, yes," Benjamin said as he looked at the raccoon-thief now staring at the fox and falcon mercenaries in a speechless manner.

"Okay, I think you guys need some explanations, now!" Michael half-shouted to the crowd. When Sly and his friends finally got seated again, still turning their heads sometimes to look around at the others around them, the half-wolf began to speak again.

"I might not be the best one to explain this, but here goes anyways," he started. "You know how it seemed like I was seemingly all-knowing about you all when I introduced you guys to each other? Well, guess what? I'm not. I don't know about **everything** in your worlds, really. Heck, I'm not really that fluent about my own world and **its** history!

"The only way I've come to learn about you guys and your worlds, are through playing video-games during my childhood and up to now," Michael ended, getting quite the looks from many of the hero-audience.

Mario, being quite calm along with his friends and DK and his pals despite the situation, walked up to him, turned and spoke to the crowd. "I'm afraid to say that Michael is right. To this world, many of us aren't anything but videogame-characters."

"As much as I hate to admit it," Link said from besides Zelda, who had a very upset look on her very pretty face, "I actually believe you. From what I have seen of these, uh, 'video-game screen-shots', it seems like we really are known here around as fictional beings."

"But how in the name of the Gods AND the Devil does that explain where you've gotten those games and comics about SLY and US?" Bentley asked really suspicious about the whole situation.

"Well, I have a hand in that actually," Kalasta said as he stepped forward, making the turtle and his friends look at him. "You remember how you came to this building? Through dimensional portals?"

"Yeah," Bentley said slowly, before he quipped, looking like he'd suddenly been hit by an epiphany in the shape of a truck at an amazing 120 mph! "NO WAY! Are you telling me that you found those games about us in ANOTHER DIMENSION?"

"How else do you explain how you are sitting in the presence of sapient races that's either supposed to be fictional, or in some cases, _extinct?"_ Here the druid looked discreetly at Mario, Link and Ash in specific.

"Oh, my, gawd!" Bentley said in realization. "Well that explains more than enough! Though, not everything, I gotta say."

"I think you have to clear a-something up with us, now," Mario said to the half-wolf and the canine wizard, "Exactly which worlds did you get our games from? I bet a lot of mushrooms that you didn't-a find mister Sly's games anywhere around this world, seeing as you are, well, 'furries' too like him and his buddies."

"You're quite right when it comes to that point," Michael said to the human plumber. "Well, it's only the games and comics about him that we, or rather Kalasta, found in the alternate dimension where only humans live here on Earth. The rest of them, those about you, DK, the Pokémon world and others, are from our world."

"I'll be," Mario said as he picked up. "So, this means we really are universally known, then?"

"Seems pretty much like it, yeah," Michael said to him, before he blurted out, "And the freaky thing is, I still have a bit of a hard time myself coming to terms with the fact that **you** and your friends and brother really **do **exist."

"Well, I had similar thoughts when I first arrived in the Mushroom Kingdom as a grown man," Mario told him sincerely, "You have no Idea how much me and Luigi freaked out when we saw Goombas and Koopas for-a the first time, let alone Toad!"

"I still remember the dots I got in my ears from you screaming when we first met," Toad said wriggling a finger under his cap, "You screamed _"YIKES! MUTATED MUSHROOM-DWARF!", _or something of the likes."

"Wait a nano-minute," Ratchet said as the explanation went on, "You said you guys found videogames about **us** here on this planet? But, how is it possible for you to find games of us that's not supposed to exist, especially since me, Clank and the rest of us didn't come here trough one of those 'Dimensional portals' you were talking about?" he pointed out.

"Well, I think you're forgetting some very logic facts, my friend," Michael said to the lombax, "First of all, you travelled here from somewhere on the other side of the Universe, right?"

"Yes," Ratchet said with a nod.

"Well tell me, is Aphelion, your ship, or either Talwyn or Qwark's ships normally able to fly across bigger distances than more than one galaxy in one normal 'hyperspace-jump'?"

"No, are you kidding?" the lombax said almost laughing, "Even with today's technology level back home, NO spacecraft can travel from one side of the **Universe** to the other **that **fast, unless they're outfitted with _really_ special hyperdrive-engines."

"And I bet you had to get those installed on your ships, then?" "Yeah, but we had no idea where to get them. Such powerful upgrades aren't cheap you know." "Well, who was it that gave you some o those 'hard-to-come-by'-machine-parts?"

"Well, it was the Plumber who-!" the lombax stopped short when he realized something. He then looked over at Plum, who only smiled back in return. "It was Plum who gave us those Hyperdrive upgrades." Looking back at Michael, he said, "You've met Plum before?"

"Huh, you forgot we told you guys that down in the hangar?" the wolf-fox said with a grin to him. "Well, you should know something about those upgrades. See, Plum had found some discarded hyper-drive engines sometime before he got a 'call' from us, and while he was around here, he got help from both Albert, that old fox-professor who's also Ben's uncle, and Kalasta here, to fix them and make special advancements with them too."

"Wait. You mean to tell me that HE helped fixing up those things?" Ratchet said as he pointed at Kalasta. "So there's some kind of mumbo jumbo in those Hyperdrive-engines?"

"My magic incantations are **anything** but simple _'Mumbo Jumbo'_, young Lombax," Kalasta said a bit angry at hearing his powers being described in such a downgrading way. "But yes, I had a hand in crafting those engines into their current state.

"Those spacecraft-attachments are some of the finest co-workings between magic and technology ever crafted in this existence," the old druid ended with a proud tone.

"And it's also to note that you didn't just jump galaxies to get here," Michael said to him. "Those things made you guys jump a dimension, too!"

"OH!" Ratchet said as that piece of info sank in. "That's just.., Wow!"

"Oh, my," Clank said when he heard that. "That is some skills your older accomplices must have to simulate the Dimensionator's ability."

"Yeah, kind of," Michael said before he looked at the wizard besides him, "Though Kalasta here's got most of the glory. He's the one who put the dimensional travel-spells into the machinery."

"Maybe, but it can only be triggered by Albert's brilliant adjustments to those alien crafts," Kalasta said, humble enough to share the glory with his younger professor-friend.

* * *

To make it short, it took some more explaining for everyone, but after some hours, all the heroes had come to grips with the fact that there really **did** exist games about them in different worlds and dimensions, along with the fact that they themselves were from different planes of existences.

They had also come to understand, although a bit skeptically at first, that somehow, the Universe had let their identities become known to the people of Earth in the shape of fictional beings.

"Which begs the question," Slippy asked when they all had finally gotten to grips with all this, "Just how did you folks know that **we** really did exist before today?"

"That question is better off answered by master Kalasta here," Falisa said to the frog as she looked at the old sage. "It is, after all, he who's got the credit for this whole place becoming a reality in the first place."

"As in the fact that he showed dad and the rest of us that dimensional travel isn't just baloney-juice," Alexandra told them.

"Well, I would gladly tell you how I came to know about all of your realities," Kalasta said before he let out a long yawn, "But that must have to wait until tomorrow, I'm afraid. It's much too late for these old bones of mine to keep me up at this time of the day."

No one complained to that, as the yawning became contagious. And it wasn't any wonder why everyone felt tired, as the last hint of daylight had long since been replaced by moonlight and the clock on one wall said 10:37 in digital ciphers.

"Well, I guess it's time for some shuteye about now," Michael said as he stretched a bit. "Sorry about it folks, but we'll have to wait with the final explanation 'til tomorrow, I'm afraid."

"Don't a-worry about it, Michael," Mario told him with a small yawn himself, "I could wait until next week if needed. Right now, I just wanna get to a nice bed."

"Yeah, me too," Peach said with a cute yawn fit for a princess like herself, "And preferably one that's soft and silky, for my part."

"Hey, that's just my kind of bed too," Zelda said to the woman of same level of society as herself, "You have nice taste, dear Princess Peach."

"Well thank you, Princess Zelda," Peach said courtly to her.

"Hey, you two good-looking majesty's got just my taste, too!" Qwark butted in, his voice smeared in an over-the-top Don-Juan style. "Say, how about we share one big, nice soft'n'silky bed, **together**?"

"Thanks, but no thanks, mister," Zelda told the hunky man with a rather icy glare, a hint of red appearing in her irises. "I'm more than happy with having one green-clad hero watch over me," at which she walked to Link who were frowning deeply at the rather bold Captain.

"And I prefer my watchman clad in **red**, thank you," Peach told him off, walking over to Mario who gave Qwark a look which said 'touch her, and you're six feet deep'.

"You try that on any of our girls, mister 'Super-Hero'," Sly said to the big man in a no-nonsense way, backed up by Ratchet, Rayman, Fox and DK, "And I won't guarantee that you'll wake up without at least ONE ripped '**ball**' someday soon." Sly put special emphasis on the 'ball'-part.

That was enough to make Qwark gulp and nervously scoot far away from anyone of the opposite sex, a protective hand over his groin.

"Is he like that often?" Fox asked Ratchet as they looked at the big comic book-style captain.

"Well, that depends on the women around him. But around such cuties as those princesses, he definitely looses himself, yeah," the adventurous lombax told the vulpine mercenary, both men looking over at said females.

"Don't tell me **you're** stooping to Qwark's level, too," Talwyn said a bit smartly to him when she saw who had caught his attention.

"WHAT? No way, Tal!" Ratchet said as he turned to her in shock, a hint of pink shining under his yellow chin-fur. "There's no way I'd fall **that** easily for a new girl!"

"Oh, really? What about the first time we met Captain Sasha Phyronix aboard 'Starship Phoenix'?" Clank said as he looked up to his lifelong friend. "From how I remember it, you became quite captivated by her."

"Oh please, I was just **seventeen** at the time we met Sasha," Ratchet said in his defense, "And I only 'fell' for her because she was cute AND had a VG-9000 game system to booth. I was a **sucker** for both qualities back then!"

"Oh, like you aren't now with your VG-10000 game system back home AND Miss Apogee here today?" Clank said a bit smugly to the lombax.

This caused Ratchet to give the tiny robot a smack in the back of his metallic head while his cheeks grew even redder, making Talwyn giggle at the scene. "You poor, lonesome lombax," she said as she took his hand, "I was only teasing ya, you know."

"Well, you know what," Ratchet said to her, a smirk growing on his face, "I think I like a teasing girl more than a blue-blooded one."

"Oh, you're impossible," Talwyn said to him, giving him a playful shove.

"Now, were have I heard something like that before?" Sly said with a smirk of his own, as he looked away from the young Lombax-man and the Markazian girl, and to his lovely vixen partner.

"Oh, you're no better than that fellow with the wrench, Cooper," Carmelita said to him with a hopeless grin. "It's not half a day since I came to know your real feelings for me, and you're getting **that** suggestive already?"

"Well, what can I say, querera? That's just 'the ol' Cooper-charm' kicking in, I guess," Sly said to her, making the cop-and-thief-couple laugh at the aspect, but still thinking it didn't sound too out of the picture. (Come on! Being together for six years, they must've grown **that** attached during Sly's 'amnesia' to do **it** at least sometimes. This fic is rated **T** for a _reason_, you know!)

* * *

While the two couples had a nice laugh, Fox saw Krystal had stepped out on the balcony again. Going after her, he saw her looking up to the Moon orbiting over the dunes of the desert, a thoughtful look on her features.

Moving over to her, he put his arms around her tenderly, which made the cerulean-furred vixen start a bit, but she relaxed when she turned to see her love. "What are you thinking about, Krystal?" Fox said to her, worried if she was troubled about something.

"Oh, it's nothing really," she said before she turned her gaze upwards to the white, crater-infested orb hanging over the sky. "I was just thinking about Marcus, is all."

"No need to worry. Lucy's looking after him, remember?" Fox said to his beautiful mate, giving her a soft kiss at the neck. "He's safe with her."

"It's not his safety I'm worried about," Krystal said, a bit of wavering in her voice, "I'm just concerned if we'll be able to get back to Lylat and celebrate his birthday. You know, we haven't been able to do that in two years now."

"Oh! I almost forgot about that," Fox said as the date of his son's birthday came back to his mind.

"Oh my God, that's just heartbreaking," a girl's voice said sadly from behind them. Turning, they saw Falisa and Michael standing by the doorway.

"Whoa, two birthdays without Mama and Papa McCloud?" Michael said taken a bit back at hearing this. "Well, that sucks! And, exactly how old is Marcus now, anyways?"

"He turns five years in a month," Fox said to the younger half-vulpine.

"Poor kid," Michael said with a frown, his arms folded before his chest. He then looked at the fox-couple, giving them a warm smile. "Don't worry, my friends. We'll make sure you'll get together with lil' Marcus in good time before then, you have my word on that."

"Thanks, mister Arnesen," Krystal said to the younger mutt-man, "That's really kind of you."

"Anything for a happy family, dearest Miss Krystal," Michael said with a graceful bow to the two. "There's no way I could let a righteous couple like you be separated from their only child, could I?"

"Oh, Mikey, you're never gonna stop that, are you?" Falisa said to him, giving him a small shove before she yawned. "Can the knightly honor and give us the go for the bed already."

"Who's stopping you from going there already, sleepy-head?" Michael said to her before he yawned himself. "But, I see your point. Well, we can worry about Marcus tomorrow, right?" he said to the vulpine couple.

"Yeah, I guess we can," Krystal said as she stretched in Fox' embrace. "Now, I'd be more than happy to know where to sleep."

"Okay then, just follow us," Michael said as he lead the way back inside, followed by his girlfriend and the red reynard and the blue vixen.

Inside they saw most of the heroes had already left. Still standing around were the rest of the Star Fox team, alongside Sly and his gang. "So, I guess Alex, Abigail and their boys have already taken the other guys down to their rooms?" Michael asked the remaining cast.

"Yeah," Sly said to the half-wolf, "We didn't follow them because we thought it be nicer to have you guys with us. Couldn't let some nice couples like you guys go down all alone."

"Man, and some people says chivalry's dead," Michael said as he put an arm around Falisa's slim waist. "Or what do you say, my princess?"

"Hush, you," Falisa said to him with a drowsy smile.

"Well, just follow us, friends," Michael told the two groups with them, before the wild-dog-and-cat-couple walked of to the lower floors, followed by the others.

* * *

Some levels down, Michael went over to a console on a corridor wall right next to some doors, and began to type on the keyboard under it. As he typed, shuffling sounds could be heard on the other side of the wall from them.

When he was finished, the noise stopped too. Then Michael walked over to one of the doors, and once he stood in front of it, the door opened in a split-and-slide manner.

Inside was a hallway with doors to other rooms.

"Um, what was all that typing good for?" Sly asked the half-wolf perplexed.

"Oh, that," Michael said to him, "Well, this console, like many others around in here, is connected to many of the devices in this building, including those dimensional portals. And right now, I typed in the command for scanning you guys' abodes for 'recreational purposes'."

"You mean, making some of your machines scan our homes?" Bentley said slightly awed and peeved at the same time.

"Yep. But don't take it badly, Bentley," Michael said to the turtle, "I only did it so the facility's built-in furniture maker-and-mover could mold your guestrooms to look like back home."

"You don't mean..?" Sly said as he moved inside the hallway and opened a door that had a title-plate on it which said 'Cooper-Fox'. Looking inside some seconds, the raccoon looked back out at the wolf-fox and said, awed at what he just saw, "Holy crap! This room looks JUST like my and Carmelita's bedroom back in Paris!"

"It does?" Carmelita said, moving over to her ringtailed partner's side and peeking inside too. Two seconds later she almost screamed in awe, "Madre y Dios! It really **does** look just like our bedroom back home!"

The others became too curious to just stand back and were fast to walk inside the hallway to look behind other doors.

"Look, Bentley. This room's just like ours, too!" Penelope said to her boyfriend.

"Gads, that's so cool!" was Bentley's response.

"Hey, Falco, that wolf-guy's not kidding," Katt said with a smile, "They've made this place just like our own cozy love-room back on the Great Fox!"

"SSH! Not when everyone's listening, Katt!" Falco hushed his mammalian lover.

"Hey, they even made the bed for us too! How sweet is that, Amanda?" Slippy said to his wife.

"Almost as sweet as you, Slippy dear," Amanda said to him as she saw the double-bed inside.

"Great hotcakes! They even included my Marvel comics!" Murray whooped in his childish joy, before he looked out at the half-wolf, " Thanks, mister wolfy-dude!"

"Ah. This room looks just like my charging station back at the ship," R.O.B. vocalized after scanning his guestroom, "Even the plug-in size is right. Many thanks, Mr. Arnesen, Sir."

"Oh my," Krystal said after she and Fox had looked inside their own guestroom, "This is just so incredible. Every part of this room looks like our bedroom down to an inch."

"Yeah," Fox said as he looked over the interior again, "Those scanners of yours really did a number on our guest-rooms. I've never seen better copying-skills ever."

"Well, I hope they copied the coziness of your bed-rooms too," Michael said to them, before he stepped inside and walked to the inner-most doors in the hallway, "And for all your bathroom-needs, the toilets are in here, men's to the left, girl's to the right. And there's also a specially fitted one for handicapped persons too, right behind me."

"Gee, thanks," Bentley said as he rolled up to the door and looked inside, "That's pretty nice of you to make all these commodities for us, Michael."

"Only the best is good enough for guys like you, Bent," Michael said to him, "Hey, we warped you guys away from your homes: the least we can do is make your stay comfortable."

"You're an odd bunch, I'll have you know that," Fox said to them with a sleepy smile, "But you're not half bad."

"Thanks, Mr. McCloud," Falisa said to him before she said to her boyfriend, "Well, Mikey? Are we getting to bed tonight or not?"

"Coming, my sweet biscuit," Michael said to her, walking past the others who promptly went inside their individual guest-rooms. Turning back, he said, "Good night, everyone."

"Good night," both the teams of mercenaries and master thieves (and cop) said in return as they closed the doors.

Stepping out into the large corridor from the smaller one, Falisa locked eyes with her mate. "Now, I think I'm gonna exact my revenge on you from that wake-up kiss earlier."

"Okay, Fali," Michael said to her, "And how are you gonna do me in, tonight?"

"Like this, sweetie," Falisa said, putting her thumb in her mouth and blowing into it.

When she was finished with that, Michael looked her over and said with a wolfish grin, "Oh, my. I'm in for a **big** punishment tonight. You'll be sure to give me your worst, girl."

"Like always, love-dogie," the half-leopardess said to him with a succulent voice as they linked arms and walked to their room.

* * *

One of the cameras in the hall had caught their shadows while they had stood still, and as the record got fed on one of the monitors in the rec. room of the facility, one of the guards took notice of the activity and called the other two to look at it too.

"Man, she's at it again," the first guard said as they saw the replay.

"She's got some weird taste in magic, that's for sure," the second one said as he watched.

"Yeah, and the thing is, **that** particular spell's just so, weird as it sounds, sexy!" the third guard mentioned as he watched the tape.

The two others nodded in approval as the record played again, showing the image of a feminine shadow _growing_ and then walking away...


	14. Ch 13: New day, New stories

_Ta-DAAAHH! Happy new year, folks! New year, new possibilities. And what better way to start 2012 than with a new chappie in this awesome story?_

_I have to apologize to everyone who's been reading this story and finding it to be worth spending time on reading it. I was in a bit of a funk last year, so I didn't feel motivated to work on this story._

_Well, now I've gotten back into the spirit, and I'm gonna get this story out of its stalemate. Enjoy!_

* * *

New day, new stories

The next morning, Carmelita woke up with a smile on her features. As she wiggled to sit up, she saw Sly snoring gently beside her, one arm laying over his bare chest.

She could only stare at him, wondering if the events they experienced the day before had been real or only a very realistic dream. It was when she saw Sly's gold-hooked cane resting against the wall on his side of their bedroom she got uncertain, her groggy mind causing her to begin to wonder if she had perhaps dreamt the whole thing. Maybe she really just caught Sly red-handed with his old thief-accessories in their apartment, before he somehow seduced her into bed for some 'late-night fun', consequently giving her that odd dream.

She frowned accusingly at the raccoon and was about to give him an abrupt awakening, when someone knocked on their door, making her turn her head to it. "Hello?" a female, slightly nasal voice asked from outside, "Are you guys awake in there?"

Sly woke up from the knocks and, with a yawn, said, "Yeah, 'morning, Penelope. *yawn* Got the coffee ready yet? I need a serious caffeine-kick now. I just dreamt I met Fox McCloud and Super Mario, amongst others."

"Well, I'm afraid that wasn't a dream, Sly," another woman said next, "It was all real." Then the door opened, and a short, purplish mouse-girl with long blonde hair and glasses, and a taller, blue vixen with short blue bangs came into view of the doorway. "Good morning, my friends," Krystal said politely to the couple in the bed.

"Dios," Carmelita said before she looked at Sly with a mildly surprised and happy expression, "Then I really did see your memories yesterday, after all!"

"Huh, yeah, I guess you did," Sly said as he sat himself up and stretched out, giving her one of those damned handsome grins of his, "And I think I'm not mistaken when I say you're glad you found out the real truth about me, don't you, querera?"

"You couldn't be more right, Ringtail," Carmelita said before she leaned in and gave him a loving, heartfelt kiss on his lips that left both of them with short breath and a smile on their features, and made Krystal chuckle at their antics while Penelope scoffed lightheartedly at the scene.

"Well, that was sweet," Sly said with a grin before he grabbed his shirt and said, "But now, I think I want to get some breakfast. Has anyone of the others gone to the dinning hall already?"

"Well, Murray went of some thirty minutes ago right before Mr. Slippy and his wife," Penelope said as she adjusted her glasses, "But Mister McCloud and the rest of his team are still here alongside me, Bentley and Krystal."

"Um, Sly?" a nasal male voice spoke up from behind the doorway, "Is inspect- uh, I mean, Carmelita _still_ happily unarmed besides you?"

"no need to hide in your shell anymore, Bentley. She's alright," Sly said to the spectacled turtle who peeked into the room. "Gee, I thought you had gotten used to her yesterday."

"Well, considering the facts that we are reunited after six years with you working for Interpol, that we are in one of **the** most secretive private facilities on the planet, that we are now besides one of a BIG gang of people that are _supposed_ to be videogame-characters, and that **we** apparently have **a** **videogame-franchise about ourselves**** in an alternate reality **(all of which we learned just yesterday), I'd say Miss Fox _snuggling_ close to you **without** her shock pistol even _remotely_ pointed at you is _one_ abnormality too much for me to comprehend at the moment," Bentley bluntly summed up to his masked friend, his small audience laughing a bit at the unintentionallycomical summary.

"Man, could you say that with some _less_ academical vocabulary?" a new voice said from over the ones in the hallway, "I lost you at abnor-whatever."

Bentley and the others quipped as the constantly-grinning Murphy flew into view in the doorway and saw Sly and Carmelita who just had put their last clothing on. "Dang it, I missed you dress up from scratch!" the flying frog-like guy said with a childish pout.

Carmelita had to pinch herself in her chin when she saw Murphy hover right in front of her and Sly. "Okay, now I'm convinced I'm not dreaming," she said, rubbing her now sore cheek as she looked at the Greenbottle giving her a dumb look. She then turned to Sly and said in wonder, "Who would have guessed I would one day spend the morning with Sly Cooper and the Cooper Gang inside multi-billionaire Julius Royalhart's most secure facility, alongside the Star Fox team, Rayman and their amigos among other videogame-icons?"

"Not me, that's for certain," Sly said to her with a grin.

"Hey, prisoners of love!" another voice hollered from behind Krystal, "Are you guys gonna stay and smooch all day, or come grab some grub while it's still morning?"

"Coming right away, Falco Lombardi," Sly answered the avian's voice as he and Carmelita walked into the small hallway to their old and new friends, first going to the bathroom to groom themselves some before they caught up to the rest of the Star Fox team (minus the frogs) as they walked into the bigger corridor.

"Morning, friends," Fox said to Sly and his partners as Krystal got up to him, "It's nice to see you're finally up with the rest of us."

"Finally?" Sly asked, "What do you mean? Did we oversleep?"

"According to my planet-rotation-to-local-time-program, you have been resting in your room from approximately 11:05 pm yesterday to 09:25 am Earth-time, mister Cooper," R.O.B. informed them plainly.

"Whoa, we must have been kinda beat then, I guess," Sly said with a grin.

"No kidding, after the number you did us in with, Sly," Carmelita said mock accusing him, making both of them laugh.

"Okay, enough intimate info, thank you," Bentley said to them with a blush as he spun his wheelchair's wheels, "I'd say we go get some breakfast, and maybe find that Michael guy and his friends too. I'm really antsy to find out what the heck it is he and his buddies needs **us** for."

"Yeah, he and his friends still have some explaining to do," Falco said in agreement as they came to a split in the corridor. Looking around, he turned and asked Fox, "Hey, Foxie. You wouldn't happen to know the way to the mess hall in here, do you?"

"Um, actually, I don't know," Fox said after sweeping his eyes around too, "It was Michael who lead us around before. I never took real notice of the way."

"I have to confess I didn't either," Sly said slightly slack-eared, "I didn't really think I would have to find my way around this place without someone to guide me."

"Hey, Murphy," Krystal asked the Greenbottle, "Do you remember which direction the mess hall is?"

"Are you kidding me?" Murphy said to her in an half-angry tone. "It took me half an hour trying to find the way back to our sleeping-quarters. Of course I don't know the way! All the hallways in this building are identical, it's confusing me something crazy!"

"Oh, swell," Bentley sighed, "And I don't have my computer with me to hack into this place's mainframe and get a map of the facility. This is just _great_."

"why hack the mainframe for a map when you could've just asked us for directions?" someone said from behind Bentley, just before a certain white-and-black-haired lioness walked up to them with a feral lion of stone wandering right besides her.

"Good morning, everybody," Alexandra said in greetings to them, "I thought I would find you lost in here somewhere." Then she pointed into the left corridor from them and said, "If you're looking for the mess hall, that way's the fastest from here."

"Many thanks, miss Royalhart," Fox said to her with a polite smile, "Lead the way."

"Okay, follow me," Alex said to them as she and Leomph walked into the left corridor, the two teams of space pilots and master thieves (plus a cop and one Greenbottle) following right behind.

"Tell me, why did you fly into our quarters, actually?" Krystal asked Murphy who had sat himself on Leomph's back for a hike.

"Oh, I just wanted to check if you were still asleep, that's all," Murphy said matter-of-factly to her, adding, "Rayman and the others ate half an hour ago and wondered where you guys were, so I volunteered to check on ya."

"And perhaps peek at any girls in their undergarments too, _hmm_?" Bentley asked suggestively, remembering how disappointed Murphy looked when he saw Carmelita wasn't in just her undies.

"Uh, well, um, I _may_ have had some funny little idea of waking ya guys up while you were snoozing in your shorts and shirts and, well, _unmentionables_," Murphy said with a nervous chuckle as the females of the group gave him angry looks. "Hey come on, I was only gonna do something like pinch your noses, not pull the pants off your butts or something!" the frog-like man hurriedly said to them.

"Sure, you weren't gonna do _**that**_," Katt half-whispered sarcastically in his direction, huddling a bit closer towards Falco who just smirked at the gall of the tiny pixie-toad-thingy.

Before anyone else said anything, Alex spoke up, "Okay folks, we're here." And then she stepped up to the doors of the mess hall, who still had dents in them from Leomph's stunt yesterday on Mario. She opened them and strolled inside, the others straight behind her.

While finding good tables for themselves, Sly, Fox and their friends saw that the other groups they had arrived here with were already sitting around, either chatting with each-other or just eating.

And talking about eating, there were **lots** of food-stuffs to choose from. Granted, it was a mess hall, a place meant for the staff of the large facility to rest up and have some food during breaks, pretty well illustrated by some off-duty guards and other personnel enjoying breakfast. But today there was many extra different kinds of edibles (and much more to booth!), seeing they had guests from other **worlds**, including princesses, plumbers, aliens, sentient robots, a swordsman, a limbless guy, and some non-native, odd-looking feral creatures, among others.

* * *

By the tables where Ratchet, Clank and their friends sat, Zephyr had taken hold of one of the nearby guards' gun and were now examining it.

"_This_ is supposed to be standard gun-power on this planet? Hah!" the long-faced robot laughed, "Back in my day, even a **hoolefoid** on Tribur II could construct a weapon with more functionality than this pea-shooter! I mean, heh, this one doesn't even come equipped with hah-an additional 'seeker-bullet'-mod! HAH!"

"Um, thanks for insulting our most advanced weapons-specialists around here," the guard said a bit miffed as the chuckling Zephyr returned the gun to him.

"Zeph, you darn old fool!" Cronk said to his old comrade-in-arms, knocking him on the top of his head, "It wasn't Tribur II we were stationed on at that time, but **Cardu** II! And that hoolefoid was 65 cycles old and had been a weapon-smith since he was 16. Of course **he** could make a gun powerful enough to make even a gang of surly **Craggymites** flee when they saw its power!"

"It was **Tribur** II, I tell you! And he was **56** at that time, not 65!"

"Was not!"

"Was too!"

"Was not!"

"Was too!"

"Not!"

"Too!"

"NOT!"

"TOO!"

"GUYS! Quit it!" Talwyn interrupted her two guardians with a frown, quickly stopping their banter. "Seriously, when will you two ever stop that? you make us look stupid here," she said with a tired sigh.

"Eh, old guys are just that way Tal," Ratchet mused besides her, taking a bite of his sandwich before he continued, "They always complain about _how much better_ everything was before, and stuff like that. It's just their way to unwind and let out steam."

"I know what you mean, mister lombax," someone said from behind the lombax. When he turned, he saw Donkey Kong chewing a banana before he said, "Daddy Cranky always jabber about how lazy I am compared to him back when."

"Ah, he does, doesn't he?" Ratchet asked in wonder, looking forward to hear about what this big ape that could rival Qwark in strength had to say now about his friends and family.

"With a good reason to booth," Cranky butted in, making Ratchet and DK look his way. Looking at his offspring, he continued,"You youngsters today are lucky who can just go to the nearest palm tree and pick a banana whenever you want. Back in my day, banana trees were a lot more scarce on Kongo Bongo Island, and we had to trek around the jungle for hours just to find **one** tree with bananas. We were lucky if we found two, maybe _three_ palm trees with 'em at the same time."

"Well, that was before we found the Crystal Coconut and found out it grants wishes," DK said back, "And then I wished for a giant banana plantation! Wasn't that smart, or what?"

"Pah! See what I mean?" Cranky said to Ratchet with an exasperated expression, "I had to **work** for the yellow fruits when I was his age, while he got lucky and found a magic gem that gave him the stuff on a silver platter!"

"Well, the Coconut did make it easier for us to find bananas, that's right. **But**,and this is a big 'but', it made things tougher too," Candy said in her boyfriend's defense, giving her future father-in-law a little frown. "Don't forget King K. Rool began really terrorizing us after DK found it. Saving our hides now and then isn't what I would exactly call lazying about."

"Ah, well, that's true, b-b-but **still!**" Cranky said trying to retaliate, "That big ape of a son of mine still stuffs his face more than he battles for survival, like **I** did!"

"He'll never stop arguing about this stuff,"Donkey whispered to Ratchet as the older white-bearded gorilla grumbled and turned back to his cereal with fruits.

* * *

While this transpired, Fox and Sly alongside their friends had found Murray, Slippy and Amanda sitting close to Michael and his friends. Taking seats besides them, Sly greeted his purple/pink hippo-buddy, "'Morning, Murray. How's the food?"

"Morning, Sly," Murray said to him after he had stopped chewing, "It's really great. That Pablo dude is one real heckuva chef!"

"Well, I didn't hire him to do anything less than please his connoisseurs," Julius said to Murray from his seat between Albert and Michael. "I only have employees who know what they do, and Pablo sure knows his pots and pans."

"Yeah, he sure does," Murray responded to the old lion before he patted his stomach, "I think I maybe put on three pounds just now from all that good food that gator-guy made."

"Good thing Dad told Pablo and his crew to cook breakfast for three when counting in you, then," Alexandra said to him with a smirk as she sat down next to Benjamin.

Carmelita had gotten some pancakes for herself and was about to chew on one when she got aware of something. "Um, senõrita Falisa?" she said turning to Falisa, "Is it just me, or have you maybe put on 'some' weight yourself since last night?"

"Oh, you noticed, huh," Falisa said as she turned to look at the raven-haired vixen. Patting her own belly with a small smile, she said, "Well, both yes and no, actually."

"'Both yes and no'?" Sly asked and turned to the lynxopardess himself, "What's that supposed to m-... m-m-" he began to stammer when he saw her, "...-m-m-mean?"

"What are you stammering about, Sly?" Bentley asked him and turned to the girl too, "This food **is** really delicious. It's not her fault if she can't stop eating until she is completely full, and then some."

But when he looked at her, the crippled turtle blinked rapidly behind his glasses and stuttered, "Er, I meant 'and then some' to her _n-normal_ capacity, not to a h-h-higher level than even **Murray's**!"

Krystal had turned and looked at Falisa too when Sly had. "Oh my goodness," she said surprised at the feline, "You really are 'bigger' than you were last night."

"Oh, come on, Krysie," Katt said next to her when she saw the younger cat-girl, "Why don't you just tell the girl she's turned **fat**?"

"Not just 'fat'-fat," Penelope piped in, "She's, well, HUGE!"

The rest of the people seated with them looked at Falisa, and except for the Toads, Murray and the other guys who had arrived for breakfast earlier that morning, they got really surprised at what they saw. Falisa was a lot different from how they remembered her from the day before. Instead of having her originally slender, hourglassed frame, the lynxopardess now was actually bigger and fatter-looking than Murray, taller than him by over a foot and wider around her belly by a good two! (and this in comparison to a hippo!)

And still, even though she was really large, she still was very pretty, the apparent fat swelling her body into a surprisingly cute'n'cuddly shape, almost like a big, soft teddy-bear. And thankfully, her clothes somehow still fit around her now rotund shape too.

"Eh heh," Falisa said blushing some at their awestruck looks, "I know I'm looking really fat now, but this is actually not real flab, you should know."

"Not real?" Falco asked incredulous, still trying to not look too slack-beaked at the sight of her, "It looks pretty much to me like that belly of yours is a **real** hill of blubber."

"Wait a moment," Fox said as he realized something, "This wouldn't happen to be one of those _magic tricks_ of yours, is it?"

"That's right, Mr. McCloud," Falisa said to the reynard space-pilot with a smile, "this is all just plain old magic."

"Whoa," Katt said as she walked up and touched Falisa's now big derriere, "That's some hocus-pocus you're under, girl. This feels pretty real to me."

"It's just a substance-trick following the spell, actually. I'm about as light as I use to be, give or take some pounds," Falisa said to the slightly older female before she giggled when Katt unintentionally tickled her when she rubbed a sensitive part of her exposed belly.

"Hey, Murray," Bentley asked his own, naturally rotund friend, "Why aren't you and the others here freaked out about Falisa's abnormal size too?"

"Well, we were just as freaked out as you guys when we first saw her so fat-looking after we came here for breakfast," Murray said to his smaller friend before he took another look to the now-bigger-than-him cat-girl, "But she and her friends told us about her magic trick, and then we got back to eating."

"Just like that?" Bentley said stupefied by his friend's answer.

"Hey, it's magic!" Murray said to his glassed buddy in-between bites, "I don't need any difficult explanation about how she does it other than that."

"Maybe you don't, but I would like some more info," Slippy said from where he sat, and turned to R.O.B.. "Hey, R.O.B., now that you're here, could you maybe scan her for me?"

"No Problem, Slip," R.O.B. Said to the amphibian mechanic before he turned his head towards Falisa, his red "eye"-lens flashing softly as he scanned her head-to-toe while the enchanted girl cocked her head at the sentient machine, smiling at all the sudden fuzz about her.

"Well?" Slippy asked him when the he was finished.

"According to my bio-X-ray-scan," the thin, tall and golden robot began to explain to the crowd, "Miss Falisa Gaup's whole body is currently filled with oxygen-bubbles, a.k.a air, stored inside her fat-molecules alongside some unidentified particles that bind the air to the fat and hinders it from leaving her body. Said body currently has taken on a rubber-like feature commonly seen in balloons which, in combination with the air-pockets, enables her to increase and decrease her body mass at will. Her front mammaries, stomach, hips and rear-end in special might I add," he added rather boldly.

"Aw darn, you have a "bio-X-ray-scan"-program installed?" Zephyr said jealously at the golden-colored machine of another fabrication than him, "You lucky young man."

"But, why in the world are you in that shape?" Sly asked mystified to Falisa, trying to not stare at her rather luscious-looking breasts, "I don't see any good reason to be that size, really."

"Well, you can partly blame my boyfriend for why I am this size now," Falisa said with a smile to the master thief as she looked at her beau who began to blush as the two groups of various anthros from Earth and Lylat, as well as the other gangs of heroes, looked at him.

"Well," Michael said with a nervous chuckle, "I **do** love Falisa as her normal lithe, slender and curvy self and all that, but I have this, how should I say, _affection_ for girls with some meat on their bones too. I know it sounds weird, but hey, not every guy can be completely A4 in all aspects, right? And I just happen to find some fat girls to be just as cute as normally thin ones."

"Not to mention he loves to cuddle me like a big toy bear when I'm like this," Falisa added cheekily for the listeners.

"Yeah, that too," Michael said with a small smile and his ears down in embarrassment, "And well, once Falisa began practicing magic, I began to ask her if she could try to magically fatten up or inflate herself, amongst other things. Hey, magic can do stuff normally impossible outside of books, comics and fiction in general. I wanted to see if that meant being able to really manipulate your physique too!"

"At first I was a bit reluctant to try it, as I was afraid it could become permanent and ruin my body, meaning I would need to diet and train hard to get slim again. I even feared I'd have to get operated to turn normal again," Falisa said reminiscing, continuing with a smile, "But I took the chance anyway, because Michael told me he would never stop loving me no matter what size or shape I was.

"And I have to admit I'm glad I did," she said happily, stroking herself over her belly and her big butt, "It's really fun being able to turn into this kind of size actually, towering over others and making people turn heads and gawk at the sheer volumes of fat I have. It's a very neat trick, I tell you."

"Yeah, neat is the word," Michael said as he looked at his girlfriend with an adoring look, "And it really is a neat way to physically express, "The bigger the girl, there's just more to love". And man, last night was a great reminder about that."

That last line made some of the others blush at the under-laying meaning of the words. Michael noticed what he had just said and turned red as a tomato before he face-palmed himself.

"Well, maybe that was a little _too_ personal," Falisa said blushing herself before she went on, "But let me tell you guys something. This size I'm now aren't my limits. And not the uses of it, either."

"Say what? You mean to tell me you can turn yourself bigger than THIS?" Falco asked incredulously to the already big-sized girl.

"Waaayy bigger than this, buster," Falisa said to the birdman with a smug smile, "And I can get way heavy too if needed."

"'If needed'? Needed for what?" Bentley asked in wonder.

"If needed to keep some crooks down, silly," Falisa said. Upon seeing they didn't understand what she meant, the bloated feline went on, "I think some background history is needed here. You see, me, Michael and our friends like to see ourselves as something like the watchmen of New Preda City."

"Yeah, kind of something like the personal superheroes of the big city, the lights of justice, the defenders of the weak, you know," Michael added in, "You should know New Preda, like too many of America's cities, is filled with crime. Although, there's an (no pun intended) **incriminating **lot of it around here, most in part because of Alexandra's daddy here having so much wealth poured into the city in banks, museums, offices and the like, attracting thieves,con-men and crooks in general of all lousy kinds. And about 50 % of the time, the bad guys get away with their bad deeds."

At this, all heads turned to Julius who looked a bit sad at being reminded about that part.

"That is all to true," the white-maned lion added to the explanation, "And that considering I personally fund the police force with top-of-the-line equipment and hand-picked volunteering cadets from among my own trusted guardsmen. I have a good deal of businesses in town, as Michael told you, so I have a good reason to make sure the law keeps everything under control.

"But sadly, some of the more persistent and smarter villains of the region's underworld have during the years made some rather bold and successful capers on my various estates, amongst many others, despite our precautions. Some of them being fatal to my fellow citizens," he ended with a sad tone.

"Sounds to me like you could need us to clean out the scum here," Sly said as he listened to the story, a glint in his eyes telling that he wanted to give those crooks a real good whack with his trademark cane.

Several others of the heroes nodded in approval, some of the girls and the softer males (Luigi and Slippy in particular) looking sad at hearing about people dying because of uncaring crooks.

"Yeah, it sounds a lot like a case that would fit for you guys, Sly," Michael said to him before he went on, "But since you and your gang were busy because of your own cases and adventures (and later that 'amnesia' of yours), and since Kalasta came to live with us and taught the girls magic and such, we thought we should take matters in our own hands. Marvel-style," the half-wolf added with a grin.

"Oh boy! That sounds **SO cool**!" Murray said exited, having listened intently since Falisa said 'watchmen'. "Hey, don't tell me you have some awesome superhero-names, too?"

"Well, my hero-alias is 'Kit-Ton'," Falisa said with a grin. "The name is what the police made up for this alter-ego version of me, based on the info they had from interrogating my first few catches. I never let my enemies see me as my normally fit self before I take them on, and since we usually do this hero-stuff at night, I only need to sneak up on them, blimp up, and BOOM! Helpless thugs, ready to get pancake'd."

"Oh, oh. Lemme guess, you like, being a cat and all, got an advantage in that you can see in the dark, and with your magic included, you have a better chance at hitting the crooks with both your body and spells? And then, I bet all that, uh, magic body-mass of yours protect you from getting harmed from punches, knives, bullets, explosions and stuff, making you an invincible bully-dozer, right?" Murray asked her interested, getting a nod and another grin from the lynxopardess.

"Then there's me," Michael said, making all eyes turn to him, "The bad guys and the press knows me as 'Cobra Blade'. I don't have all that magic like my Falisa, but I do have some fancy tricks up my sleeve. And swords-play is among them."

"Wait, '**Cobra** Blade'?" Diddy asked from where he sat, "But you're a wolf, aren't you?"

"Wolf-fox _hybrid_ to you, Diddy," Michael said to the monkey before he went on, "Well, the 'Cobra' part is because of **this** little guy." At this he stuck his hand into the front of his shirt and dragged up a small black string, with a silver talisman hanging from it in the shape of a 3 inch. sword hanging hilt up with a cobra coiling the blade with its head looking forward, a ruby embedded into its neck over where its 'head-cape' ended.

As the breakfast-audience looked at the odd accessory, Michael took it off and held it inside his left palm with his eyes closed, seemingly concentrating. Some ten seconds later, he opened both eyes and hand, and suddenly the talisman began to shimmer before it began to grow. Suddenly there was a full-sized longsword in the half-wolf's hand, and a long, silver-green cobra, with red eyes and an stylized eye-like pattern on its back, coiled on the floor in front of him.

"Friends," Michael said to the shocked on-lookers, "Allow me to introduce you to Slyther."

"_About time you let me sssee our guesssts from yonder landsss and realmsss,"_ the cobra said as it looked around, its voice somewhat ethereal, like it spoke with both mind and mouth at once.

"It can talk?" Carmelita said in awe.

"_I talk asss much asss I want to, Latin Missssy,"_ the hooded serpent said to her before it turned to the half-wolf, _"And may I sssay, you really clean up nice after a sssession with your dame, Massster. That ssshampoo doesss a good job hindering me from gagging from your usssually unkempt fur."_

"_Thanks_ for that info, Slyth," Michael sad to the snake with a half-glare as it turned to look at the others. Looking at his new friends, the wolfox explained, "You see, Kalasta gave us some real nifty gifts when he came here and started living with us, including giving the girls their magic and training with it, and giving me Slyther and this incredible, magic sword that he is bound to."

"He is an old gift given to me by a friend of mine from way back when I was traveling the world in my quest for enlightenment," Kalasta said from in-between Albert and Robin, the old magician having been silent the whole time preoccupied with his food. "Slyther was originally made as a weapon of evil intent, crafted by a wizard who's name I shall not mention here, who had succumbed to the darker powers of magic and was close to becoming dangerous. That is, before I stumbled upon him by sheer luck, and took it upon myself to knock some sense into him.

"It took doing some arduous scuffles and trials, some even making me lose both breath and blood, but in the end I managed to show him the errors of his ways. As a thank-you-gift for helping him repent for the damage he had done and what he could have if not stopped, he gave me various useful gifts including runes, amulets, parchments, and most surprisingly, Slyther's blade. The reason, he told me, was he wanted me to find a way the snake and sword could maybe become a tool to spread justice and hope instead of one to spread destruction and sorrow.

"To be blunt, I almost gave up on his request during my centuries of travels," the old man said as he reminisced to the old days, stroking his silver beard with two wrinkled fingers, "But once I learned of the terrible things that would happen in the then-far future, and thereafter learning about the ones who could make a difference in the coming battle for survival, I found the one that would be fit to carry the burden of my old adversary-turned-friend.

"Not that he is exactly what the kings of old would call "Lancelot reborn", but he 'fits the bill', as younger people say nowadays, to some extent," Kalasta ended, getting an annoyed glance from Michael after the wizard's comparison of the young wolfox to knights of old.

"Hey, speaking of premonitions," Fox asked the old mage, "Isn't it about time you guys told us the reason you summoned us? To help you with something only we could do?"

"Ah, so you're anxious to hear the prophecy about yourselves, then?" Kalasta said looking at the young fox-man with sharp old eyes.

"Well, I would like to hear something like that, yeah," Fox said before his belly rumbled loudly, making him look at his abdomen embarrassingly and back at the old one, "But first, I think it's best we eat up first before you begin telling us anything."

"A wise thought, young star-traveler," Kalasta said with a nod, "One concentrates better with a full stomach than an empty one." Then the old canine turned to Falisa and talked to her with a disgruntled face, "Speaking of being full, would you _please_ deflate yourself to normal size, Mistress Falisa? That overly rotund "look" of yours is really distracting for our guests, as well as a very dishonorable use of the powers you're gifted with."

"Okay, okay, I get it," Falisa said miffed to her magic mentor, closing her eyes in concentration before she began to exhale, slowly shrinking until she was back to being her normal, slender self, much to the amazement of the others.

Looking back at Kalasta, she said to him, "No need to get your hood in a knot, mage. It's just a 'small' trick that I and Michael dig really much. It's not like it drains all my magic power to work."

"It is still unnecessary to show off like that for your self-entertainment," the old wizard said to his pupil before he turned back to his breakfast, not noticing a small trickle of blood running from his nose, staining his long mustache.

"Your nose leaks red again, druid," Alexandra said to him. As Kalasta mumbled a curse under his beard while wiping his nose with a tissue, she looked at Falisa with a small grin, returned equally from the half-leopardess.

* * *

Over at Mario and friends' table, Luigi was looking at Mario and said, "Gee, that a-magic bloating trick of hers made her look kinda like she had stuffed herself with half a Mega-mushroom and then partly sucked in a P-balloon."

"Well, I thought she looked more like she had just used a Snack Basket power-up and stayed that way permanently," Mario told his brother. He then looked at the hybrid-feline and continued, "And you know what? She didn't look half-bad that a-way."

"I wonder if she can maybe eat herself to that size, too?" Yoshi said in curiosity after he had finished his fifth watermelon.

"Who knows," Toad said as he looked from the lynxopardess to his dino-buddy, "I still wonder why **you** aren't bigger than this too, Yoshi, considering all the food you can gobble down on a daily basis."

"I just have great metabolism, that's all," Yoshi said unfazed to him before he started on another fruit, unaware of the mushroom retainer rolling his eyes at him.

"'Metabolism', my spores," Toad whispered to himself.

* * *

_AN: Well, one chapter further into the story._

_Sorry if Falisa's magic 'human-blimp'-trick (human?) disturbs you or something. I just roll that way._

_L-ater!_


	15. Ch 14: Into the druid's dungeon

Into the Druid's Dungeon

When everyone was finished with their breakfast, Kalasta stood up from his seat and clapped his hands three times, getting everyone's attention.

"Well then," the wizard said as he looked around at the different heroes, "It is time you learned the truth about this strangest of meetings. Michael, Falisa, Lead the way to my chamber," he commanded the two young adults.

"Yes, Master," the duo in unison as they rose up, with Slyther coiling himself onto Michael's shoulders before they walked out of the mess hall.

"This is gonna be great, guys. You'll get to see the prophecy in all its glory!" Abigail said enthusiastically to their guests as they rose up to follow them, "Just wait till you see all the details of it!"

"Oh, I hope it's filmed with subtitles," Qwark said as he walked right behind, "I can't stand reading actual old manuscripts, they're always so full of old dust and written in gibberish no one uses anymore."

"You know you just insulted all written history in the Universe now, right?" Talwyn said to him as she and Ratchet came besides him. Frowning up at the dimwitted Captain, she continued, "The 'gibberish no one uses anymore' were created and developed by many different civilizations thousands of years ago and used for just as long, until colonists began spreading about, usually thinning out the use of the old tongue and implementing their own manners of speech into the indigenous populations.

"It's because of that many people of the Universe we know today speaks mainly one common language, many completely ignoring one of the most fundamental parts of our ancestries. Especially Holo-Vision zombies like **you**," she added with some spite, pointing a meaning finger at the big, muscled latex-wearer.

"Uh, what was that all about?" Qwark asked in confusion to Ratchet and the others.

"Let me put it simply, Captain," Clank said to him as he clomped along, "Never speak lowly about ancient historical matters around the daughter of an archaeologist."

"Especially the one and only daughter of Max Apogee," Ratchet said as he put a hand over Talwyn's shoulder, getting a little smile from her at the friendly gesture.

"Yeah, and don't ya forget it, ya big whippersnapper!" Cronk added in, punching his right hand at Qwark's shoulder to drive the point home.

"Ow! Okay, okay, point taken!" Qwark yelped, massaging his shoulder-blade as he looked at Talwyn and her entourage nervously.

"Hey, no need to argue so heatedly about ancient trivia," Benjamin said to them over his shoulder. Looking at them behind his glasses, the fox went on, "The prophecy isn't written on old scrolls, or filmed for that matter. It's actually stored in a really special kind of way."

"May I ask what kind of way, mister Turner?" Clank asked him in wonder.

"Oh, you're gonna love it," the Plumber said from behind with a big grin. "It's unlike almost anything you've ever seen! Well, 'cept fer that space-station-sized watch, maybe."

"Whoa, wait. **You** have seen the prophecy before?" Ratchet asked, looking back at him surprised.

"Well, I had to see it to believe them the first time I was here, ya know," Plum answered him plainly, gesturing a bit while he talked. "It's vital for a working man like me to get the grand picture before he can start helping out any way he can."

"...Right. If you say so," Ratchet said a little puzzled still, turning his head forwards again.

They all walked downwards for about 5-10 minutes, seeing as Kalasta's chamber was underground, deep in the basement of the massive building.

"I wonder what that prophecy is gonna say about **us**?" Misty asked Ash with wonder in her voice. "You think we'll be prominent in it, or something?"

"Who knows," Ash said to her, himself being excited about the whole thing. "I just wonder _how_ we'll be portrayed in it. How about you, Pik?"

Pikachu responded only with a shrug and a simple "Chu."

"Very honorably, actually," Falisa said to them. When the two human teens and the electric mouse looked to her, the half-lynx said, "People being able to control powerful elemental creatures from they are about ten years and up aren't a common thing in this world outside videogames, and it was completely unheard of in the past. You'll understand when you see it yourselves," she ended to the wondering youths.

"And you'll get to see it in a few moments, now," Alexandra said from ahead, "Because we've just arrived at our destination."

When the entourage of heroes saw their 'destination', they got puzzled at what they saw. The upper floors of the basement had been pretty much like the rest of the facility at large: modern, brightly lit, and a bit bland. But when they walked down the last stairs, they noticed the ground they stood on didn't feel like the other floors, but they couldn't see why because it was no light on the floor they stood in now. Except, of course, from the stairway they came from, but the lights ended ten feet up before the stairs did, not helping to illuminate anything.

"Uh, could someone turn on the light in here, please?" Luigi asked a bit louder and high-pitched than he meant to, "I'm a-not really too keen about dark places."

"Allow me," Alexandra said as she stepped forward. Standing still for a moment to concentrate, she raised her left hand and snapped her fingers. As if on cue, over a dozen flames erupted from many raised basins in front of them, startling quite a few.

With the room lit, they were surprised at what they saw. They stood in a long and wide, medieval-styled hallway made of fine stone, with the flame-bearing basins crafted into the walls. There was also many intricate patterns written in rows on the walls and basins.

At the end of the hallway, there stood a massive pair of steel doors, flanked by two large, menacing-looking gargoyles standing on either side, one that looked like a fierce dragon, and the other one in the shape of a demonic bat.

As they walked to the other side of the hallway, taking in the unexpected architecture, Link was instantly reminded of a number of the dungeons he had trekked trough in his adventures, and it made him a bit precarious, his hand going up and gripping warily at his sword-hilt.

"Link, don't be such a pussy," Navi said to him when she noticed what he did, fluttering before his eyes in an indignant fashion, "We are among friends. Do you seriously think they want to hurt us, really?"

"Sorry, Navi, old reflexes," the green-clad Hylian said to his trusty fairy-friend, his hand going back down. "I just got kind of a flashback from when we explored the temples and dungeons in Hyrule during Ganondorf's reign in the other timeline, as well as my adventures in Termina when I chased after the Skull Kid. All those monster-infested places weren't exactly something I'd like to be reminded about again."

"Sorry, Link. I didn't think about it that way," Navi apologized to him, instantly reminded herself about the spooky corridors of the temples, never knowing when a Wallmaster would drop from the ceiling, or bats or flying skulls swooped at you wreathed in flames, or a pesky booby-trap suddenly activating.

"Nothing to worry about, Hero of Time," Kalasta said from in front of them, "This place may look mysterious and boding, but it's really a safe place. It's only the gargoyles ahead guarding this area. I just fancy architecture in likeness of the old castles I used to visit on my travels. You could say it has a nostalgic effect on me."

"Oh, then you would of loved the splendor of Castle Hyrule, o great wizard," Zelda said to him, pretty fascinated by the old magician, "Our hallways are made of the finest crafted stone in our kingdom, decorated with fine portraits, shining armors and vases with the sweetest-smelling flowers, and always buzzing with activity. And I'm sure father would be thrilled about welcoming such a wizard like yourself."

"I would love to visit your castle sometime, fair princess Zelda, " Kalasta said to her, a smile distorting his facial features under his hood as he looked her way, "And I would be honored to talk with your father, the king of such a majestic and magical land as Hyrule." Then he sharply turned to move ahead of the others, "But first, there's some business we need taken care of."

When Michael and Falisa stepped in front of the doors ahead of the others, something odd and a bit scary happened. The two gargoyles positioned by the doors suddenly came to life, roared bestially and stomped in front of the two young adults with their arms crossed, blocking the doorway.

"HALT! No thieves, beggars or other miserable lowlifes shall pass this portal into Master Kalasta's sanctum of magic!" the living monster-statues announced with harsh, loud voices.

"Oh man, here we go again," Michael said in an annoyed tone, he and Falisa being unfazed when the gargoyles made their announcement. Looking back, he saw quite a sight.

Impa and Link had immediately stood in front of Zelda when the gargoyles jumped to life, while Globox hid butt up behind Rayman and Ly. Qwark and Al shook in fear behind Ratchet, while Cronk and Zephyr stood before Talwyn with their guns trained on the stone beasts. Luigi and the small Toads hid behind Mario and Yoshi, except Toadsworth who stood nervously and defensively before Peach, his cane up like a rapier. Carmelita, Falco and Katt stood with their guns locked and loaded, while Donkey Kong and Murray took battle-stances, their fists up and ready.

"Lemme at them! I'll make rubble out of those deformed garden gnomes in no time!" Cranky said in excitement, having to be restrained by Candy, Dixie and Diddy a bit forcefully.

"Everybody, calm down!" Michael said to the crowd, gesturing them to lower their weapons and stay calm. When they all did so (and Cranky stopped flailing), he said to them, "These two guys are just here to guard Kalasta's private quarters. They won't harm you."

"Hey! That's MASTER Kalasta's sanctum of magic to you, page!" the dragon-like gargoyle said as he poked Michael forcefully in the back, almost shoving the poor guy to the floor with his might.

The force of the push made Slyther fall off Michael's shoulders, the snake hissing angrily at the living ornament-creature.

"Oy! Don't hurt my boyfriend, you ancient, petrified lizard!" Falisa said to him angrily, patting Michael tenderly on his back, "He didn't do anything to you!"

"He insulted the Master's inner sanctity, that's what he did," the rocky reptile replied to her, glaring ominously at the lynxopardess, "And **you** should watch your place too, young lady!"

"It is rather you two cretins who should watch who you're addressing, Beliarus!" Kalasta said reprimandingly to the living statues, "They have as much a right to walk into my sanctum as I do."

"A thousand pardons, Master Kalasta," Beliarus the dragon-gargoyle said to his master, "It won't happen again."

"Wait a moment!" the demon/bat-gargoyle said as he stepped in front of his dragon buddy, "Don't let your guard down, Beliarus. This may look like the Master, but he could very well be someone disguised as him!"

"Oh, right! Thanks for reminding me, buddy," Beliarus said to him as he held his ground.

"Galdin, don't be ridiculous," Kalasta said to the bat-creature with a serious face, "If I was a mere impostor, how could I then be able to do **this**?" And then he teleported around the hall; first behind the two gargoyles, then to the back of the crowd, and finally back where he stood first. To say the least, many of the heroes and their friends was amazed by the wizard's little display of his powers.

"Impressive," Galdin the bat-gargoyle said before he countered, "But you could still be tricking us! We have been warned about tricksters in this time and age who can make illusions without magic. You still have to convince us for real."

"Persistent guardians, aren't they?" Sly said in awe to Abigail and Bentley, "They're even worse than some of those firewalls Bentley had to hack during our heists."

"Now that's a bit of a wrong example, Sly," Bentley retorted, glancing at the gargoyles, "They are more like two times Muggshot mixed with two times Tsao: big, strong, tricky and annoying."

"Don't worry," Abigail said to the two friendly thieves, "Kalasta will set those two in their place soon enough. I just know it."

"Hi, hi, hi!You may be resourceful, but you still have to prove yourself completely, 'Master'," Galdin said looking down at the slightly angry wizard with a smirk on his muzzle.

"Yeah, do something only the Master can do," Beliarus said as he spread his wings in an intimidating manner, "Or maybe you simply don't know what to do, do you?"

"Oh, I know exactly what to do with you two granite-brained jesters," Kalasta said with a smug smile under his beard, promptly moving his hands up to lower his hood.

When the hood went down, they all saw the visage of a wise old man who had a head and face that mixed a bloodhound with a weasel, aged by many years of travel and with a scar here and there to tell he had been trough much. Long, silver hair flowed from atop his head and down into the robes he wore. But his eyes shone almost as bright and brilliant as when he was a young man, two orange orbs looking confidently and meaningfully at the two stone-beasts.

"Oh, damnation," Galdin said, suddenly looking very intimidated at the sight of the old man in front of him.

"This isn't good," Beliarus whimpered as he nervously wringed his tail.

"Do you believe me now, my servants?" Kalasta said as he frowned at the two gargoyles.

"Yes! Yes! We do believe you, Master!" they cried in a surprisingly scared manner as they laid themselves down in front of him.

"I beg of you, don't punish us! We only meant to do our job, Master!" Galdin said in trepidation to his magical commander, his claws over his head in shame.

"Get up, you two," Kalasta said to them with authority, making the two devil-like creatures stand up on their hind legs again. "I won't punish you, but I would want you two to become more focused. You have known me since 350 years ago, I would think that is more than enough time for two marble-brained beasts like you to discern the differences between me and a mortal copycat at the first glance."

"We will become more focused, Master Kalasta. We promise!" Beliarus said with a honoring bow to him.

"Yes! We will indeed, Master!" Galdin said with a grateful expression.

"That is good. Now, go back to your posts so we can proceed," the old druid said he walked past them to the grey steel-doors, fishing up a set of peculiar keys from his left pocket.

"Yes, Master!" the two gargoyles said in unison, hopped onto the pillars they stood on earlier and became inanimate again.

"Sorry about that," Kalasta said to the heroes as he unlocked the doorway, "They mean well, but they have a habit of getting cheeky once in a while. *sigh* I guess it's simply that time of the century again."

"Wait a minute," Link said to the druid, making him look at the inquiring pointy-eared swordsman, "That was really awesome how you put those things in their place, but where did you find those beasts, and how did you get them to be so obedient to you in the first place? I mean, they are living gargoyles!"

"Oh, it's a long story, and one I do not feel like sharing right now," Kalasta said to him, turning around to push open the doors with a magic spell.

"A long story, eh?" Link said quizzically as they waited in front of the doorway.

"Yep, a long and interesting one," Alexandra said to him, adding with a cheeky smile, "And one that involves a vampire lord, ghosts, a village of frogs and a spell for curing petrification and stiff backs."

"That does sounds interesting... and a bit _strange_," the hero of Hyrule said with a wondering face.

* * *

Finally, the doors opened up with a creaking sound, showing the various heroes what the druid's chamber looked like.

In front of them was a great spacious hall of chiseled, dark-blue stone, as big as a house, lit with many torches and filled with many a magician's essentials.

Row upon row of bookcases stood around, with books ranging from old to ancient, stacked neatly besides scrolls and stone tablets probably dating all the way back to the days of the Roman Empire.

Beacons and vials with many fluids, ranging from water and fruit-juice to odd potions and concoctions, stood neatly besides lots of different equipment upon many benches. Many pots, bottles and urns stood upon shelves or on the floor, filled with what probably was potion ingredients.

Dried plants, mushrooms and berries were side by side with dead bugs like ants, scorpions and butterflies. Some bottles even contained organs in fluids meant to preserve them, and some again were holding different kinds of blood. Not normal blood, mind you, but blood from mythological creatures like dragons, goblins, were-beasts and the like.

The hall also had four thick pillars supporting it, with shelves chiseled into them and filled with various things: books, ingredients, amulets, talismans, and one that was filled with various staffs, canes and wands.

To say it in short, it was quite a sight to the heroes.

"Are you all gonna stand and stare, or are you just waiting for an invitation?" Kalasta said amused at their guests.

Mario shook his head and looked at his friends. "Well, you heard the man. Lets-a go. And I saw that, paisano," he added cheekily to Michael who hid a snicker when the Italian plumber said his "catchphrase".

They were almost all inside when they heard someone trip loudly in the doorway.

"Ow! I felt that, you abominable bat-thing!" Qwark shouted as he stumbled inside, looking irritatingly at Galdin who made a face at him before he froze up again with a stupid grin.

"That gargoyle never grows up," Kalasta said with a huff as he looked at Qwark with an apologizing face. "I'm sorry, dear President, for my servant's impish nature. I've tried telling him to stop that rubbish, but he closes his ears every-time I try."

"Oh, it's alright, your magical wiseness," Qwark said as he massaged his knee, "I know just how you feel. It's exactly the same way with Skrunch. Why just last week, that one-eyed monkey menace dropped a banana-peel right before prime-minister Gurton from Slok 2 who came on a alliance meeting. Boy, did I get an earful from that. Why, if it hadn't been for lil' metal buddy here," here the big captain patted Clank roughly on the head, "We'd have an irritable battalion of Slokian Demoli-droids bulldozing Meridian City right now!"

"Well, that sounds rather appalling," Kalasta said as he turned to rummage through the shelves of canes.

"Actually, I think the appalling part was that I helped negotiate with that irksome man," Clank said with distaste in his ocular lenses.

"I agree with you there, pal," Ratchet said, voicing his opinion about Qwark's questionable mindset. "Seriously, who in their right mind signs an alliance-treaty with a planet full of insectoid mercenaries and phone-sellers that smell like (ugh) rotten garlic?"

"Hey, I like rotten garlic! Do you have any idea how good it tastes in a mayonnaise-and-peanut-butter-sandwich?" Qwark said to the duo, unaware of how many of the others gagged at his culinary preferences. "Besides, you know my Galactic President-motto: 'Equality for all ambitious aliens'. And those guys will make some **awesome** bodyguards for yours truly, once the paperwork's been all done!"

"Riiight," Michael said sarcasticly, "No one would ever think to even **dare** make an attempt on a President with bodyguards that can either skewer you with their mandibles, perforate you with irradiated lead, or call you at 2:30 am to sell you **dishwashers** for the rest of your life."

"Exactly! You've got the picture, Mikey-man," Qwark said smiling, giving Michael a comradely clap on the shoulder while he gave a snide look at Clank and Ratchet, "Unlike some _other_ long-eared, fuzzy 'hero' and his little encyclopedoholic bot-buddy I know."

As Ratchet just rolled his eyes at the big man, Talwyn and Penelope approached Kalasta who still looked through the many canes.

"So, exactly what are you looking for now, mister mage?" Penelope asked as she looked at the different canes and wands stacked inside the pillar.

"One particular staff of the out-most importance," the druid responded to the mouse-girl as he bent down to look in another section of the shelves, "It is the one that keeps the prophecy locked inside its source of mystic energy. Now, if only I could remember where I put it..."

"Wow, that must be quite the staff, then," Penelope said in amazement as she looked through the assortment of magic-supporting objects. "How does it look like?"

"It is made of pure white chalk, shaped like a stalactite with a big, shimmering, night-black orb wedged into its top," Kalasta said as he picked up one cane to look under it better.

"Um, it wouldn't perhaps be this one down here you're talking about?" Talwyn said as she crouched down to look into the bottom-most shelf, where one particular white staff laid by itself.

"Ah, could you be a dear and pick it up for me, then?" Kalasta said as he looked down to the Markazian with a hopeful look, "I'd rather not break my back now getting it up from there."

"No problem," Talwyn said as she reached for the staff, "I have to do this kind of stuff for my old guys all the time. You don't know how many times a day Zephyr may lose either a foot or an arm under a table."

"Hey! It's not our fault that almost no-one produces spare nuts or bolts for our model-types anymore," Zephyr protested crankily. "And besides, we may be guardians, but we're still retired war-heroes. We deserve _some_ pampering."

"Speak for yourself! I have to weed out those pesky Leviathan-snakes every once or twice a month to preserve our ion-cannons," Cronk said irritably to his brown-plated comrade. "You're just lounging inside all day, sitting by the fishing pond and dogging around for Igliak krull and Obani tuna. That is, when you don't glue yourself before the Holo-Vision to watch Lance and Janice reruns."

"Why you pompous, outdated, gas-slurpin'-!"

"Guys!" Talwyn said to them, making them shut up immediately. "You got to stop that quarreling all the time," she said huffily as she brought up the staff for Kalasta. "Here you go. And sorry about Cronk and Zephyr."

"Think nothing about it, dear child," Kalasta said to her, taking the staff from her hands with much gratitude.

It looked just like he had described it: a long stalactite done in snow-white chalk, with a black, shimmering orb imbedded in it near the top, whereas the top looked like it had been broken of from its hanging place. Which it had, too.

"That's it?" Donkey Kong said in wonder as they all stared at the staff in the canine wizard's hand, "That's the super-special thingamajig that holds the prophecy about us?"

"Pah! I could store a prophecy in a pineapple more impressive than that fancy walking-stick," Cranky said disapprovingly. "A staff. Seriously, can't you do it any more stereotypical than that?"

"Shush, old bean," Toadsworth said reprimandingly to the old gorilla as he looked onto the staff in awe, "One do not insult a great wizard's instrument of magic. That is outright asking to be cursed."

"Yeah. Besides, how many times have you **heard** about a prophecy hidden inside an ancient staff, anyways?" Diddy asked Cranky suspiciously.

"Alright, I give in," Cranky finally said with his hands up, "Can't an old man get to joke around once in awhile?"

"We know how your jokes usually end," DK said with a frown, "And usually we end up as the monkey's uncles."

"Don't forget the aunts," Cranky said as he gestured at Dixie and Candy, cracking a laugh out of the crowd, including himself. Stopping to breathe, he said,"Heh, do I know comedy, or what?"

"Come on, you guys," Falisa said when she stopped giggling herself, "Time's a-wasting, and we've got a prophecy to show you all. Let's simmer down and focus, okay?" When everybody fell silent, the part-leopardess smiled as she turned to the druid and said, "Alright, teacher. You're up."

"Thank you kindly," Kalasta said to her and walked to the middle of the great room. There he muttered an incantation that made a small platform rise from the floor. Then he set his eyes upward and chanted another one that made a stalactite grow down from the ceiling, stopping two meters from the raised platform. It was chipped at its end in a way that mirrored the top of the stalactite staff he held in his hands now.

"Now, young Master Michael," the wizard said as he handed the staff to the young half-wolf, "Would you do the honor of setting the staff onto its resting-place?"

"Right away, mage-man," Michael said to him as he walked up on the platform. Looking around, he saw all of his heroes watching intently at him and the staff. "I'd cover my eyes if I were you. The initial lightshow can be very bright," he said warningly to them. When they all had secured their eyes, Michael raised the staff to the stalactite, and once the chipped parts touched, Kalasta cast a spell that welded them together, then quickly cast another one on the orb in the staff.

It suddenly shone as bright as a lightning strike, then made a strange ethereal sound, low at first, but rising in the decibels by the second, stopping at a loud, booming sound that made everyone cover their ears at the volume.

* * *

When the noise stilled and the light got bearable, everyone opened their eyes slowly, and saw that they were all suddenly in space, floating in front of what looked like a miniature Earth.

They tried to speak out their wonder, but no sound came out their mouths.

"_Fret not, friends. This is what you've been summoned here for,"_ Kalasta said to them through telepathy. Showing up from behind the globe, the mage floated in front of it and looked at the crowd.

"_Hey, I recognize this,"_ Krystal thought as she looked about, staring into the eyes of Falisa, _"We're in a place similar to the inner mind now, right?"_

"_You're right, Krys,"_ Falisa answered the blue vixen, _"Though this time, we are now spiritually linked to a specific memory of Kalasta that he locked inside the Stalactite staff when he created it hundreds of years ago."_

"_Precisely," _Kalasta said to them, turning to look at the miniature Earth in front of them. _"The staff has hold onto this secret for centuries now, and finally, you are here to see for yourselves your ultimate destiny. Now, look upon the great prophecy that will change your lives forever."_

And with that, he touched the big globe right over the spot where the Caribbean were situated, and in an instant, the planet swelled out and seemingly engulfed them, making everything go black.

* * *

_Tad-aah! New chapter, finally!_

_So, folks, are you looking forward to what the prophecy will tell? Well, all I can tell you is it's gonna be epic!_

_So, I know I should've asked you before, but here goes anyway: comment, rate, and all that you're supposed to do on the internet! Tell me what you guys think about this story, if there even is anyone still reading this stuff._

_Until the next installment of "The Nine Heroes", Ciao!_


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